A Noble Endeavour
by BigBadWolfTardis
Summary: With her mind burning, Donna Noble is offered a choice by the Tardis herself. Forget her life with the Doctor and return to being just an ordinary temp, or go back in time to the moment she first appeared in the Tardis and prevent the Metacrisis from happening. Will Donna be strong enough to rewrite her entire life with the Doctor, or will it all come crashing down around her?
1. Donna's Choice

**Hello : ) I know there are about a million and one stories out there like this one - most of them involving Rose reliving her life with the Doctor - but I've always wanted to do one of my own, just a little differently, hence why Donna is going to be the main character of this story : )**

 **I actually started this story several years ago. I posted it, but I was never totally happy with it. There were just little things that bugged me about it, so I eventually took it down.**

 **It was always my intention to rework some stuff in the story and put it up again, I just never really had the time, but now I do : )**

 **Anyway, without further ado - welcome to A Noble Endeavour : )**

 **Please remember that Doctor Who is not mine, and I hope you enjoy this story : )**

* * *

 **A Noble Endeavour**

* * *

 **Donna's Choice**

* * *

Donna Noble let out a tired sigh as she leaned against the console of the Tardis, a magnificent time machine that could travel anywhere and everywhere in time and space in the blink of an eye.

Whilst on the outside, it looked like an old blue police box, but on the inside, it was so much bigger and _so_ much more magical. Blue and green lights lit up the room, and large ornate coral struts held up the dome shaped ceiling.

The floor was a metal grate, and in the centre of the room, the strange and bizarre console stood, a large glass cylinder called the Time Rotor reaching up to the centre of the ceiling.

Donna herself was a tall, confident woman with long red hair and a gracefully beautiful face. No make-up, no nonsense, just her - pretty and confident.

Well, _mostly_ confident.

She had a lot of self-doubt, and a strong lack of belief in her own specialness, even going so far as to deny being important or useful to anyone.

That was until she absorbed the Doctor's mind into her own head, and a whole universe of information exploded through her.

Facts and figures combined with human intuition.

A Human Being with a Time Lord brain.

She was the most unique woman in the whole of creation after all, and thanks to her, the universe was now safe. In fact every universe was, all thanks to Donna Noble.

The Doctor-Donna.

That was what she had been called by the Ood, and by the Doctor himself.

The man in question was the last of his kind, a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. He was a pretty boy with spiky brown hair and a baby face complexion, and far too skinny for Donna's tastes.

He wore a pinstripe suit and a long brown coat, and even though he wore a manic grin most of the time, Donna knew better than to trust it.

He was never _really_ alright.

He had lost too much.

His planet, his friends, his family, and now he had lost the woman he loved.

 _Twice_!

And now, he had just said goodbye to all his old friends all at once.

Sarah Jane Smith had been the first.

But the Doctor didn't begrudge her one bit.

She had a son to get back too, and he was only fourteen. It was only right that she got the chance at being a mother, and so he had just waved goodbye and told her that he'd see her again soon.

Then Captain Jack Harkness and Martha Jones had left.

Captain Jack was the leader of Torchwood Cardiff, a small rag tag team that protected the Earth by monitoring a rift in time and space. He was also immortal, wrong by the laws of time, but the Doctor had managed to push past all that and by comfortable in his presence again.

Martha had other responsibilities too.

Not only did she have a family to look after, but she worked for UNIT, a sort of alien fighting army, and she was trying to show them a better way of dealing with aliens. Just like the Doctor had taught her.

So once again, he waved them off, back into their own lives.

Mickey Smith had then left too, deciding to come back to his original universe instead of returning to the parallel world he had spent the last few years in. Apparently his gran had passed away peacefully, and with no hope of rekindling his relationship with Rose Tyler, he was opting to start a brand new life back where he belonged.

After saying goodbye to the Doctor, he had raced off after Jack and Martha, and the three of them left together.

And the next goodbye was most definitely the most painful of all.

The Doctor had piloted the Tardis into a different universe, to a spot in a Parallel Norway called Bad Wolf Bay. Once there, Rose Tyler, her mother Jackie Tyler, and the New Doctor, the result of the same Biological Metacrisis that had given Donna so much intelligence, had all stepped out onto the beach.

The Doctor had gone on to explain that his clone would only live one single life and never regenerate, and therefore could spend a life with Rose in a way he never could. It was only when the clone had whispered that he loved her in her ear, Rose had given in and kissed him.

The Doctor had looked utterly heartbroken, but knew he was doing what was best for Rose.

What he _thought_ was best at least.

Donna had thrown him a sympathetic look as he swallowed hard, before he turned and re-entered the Tardis, with Donna following, before piloting them away back to their own universe before the walls of the world closed again, trapping Rose Tyler and her new Doctor there forever.

And that was the moment the cracks in his armour had started to appear.

A tiny tear that Donna almost missed appeared in the corner of the Doctor's eye, and without uttering a word; he stormed out of the control room in his usual dark manner to regain some of his composure, leaving Donna alone in the control room.

And she knew what was going to happen next.

She had the mind of a Time Lord in her human head, and she wouldn't be able to sustain it for much longer.

She winced as her head throbbed with something so much worse than just a severe migraine.

Her mind was racing, so many ideas, so much darkness; her own mind was drowning in it.

The knowledge was killing her; burning out every synapse in her brain until soon she would burn up complete and die in absolute agony.

Ever-lasting death for the most faithful companion.

When she had first heard those words she didn't know who they might apply to.

They might have applied to Rose.

The most faithful companion; well Rose had crossed whole universes to get back to the Doctor, and if _that_ wasn't faithful, Donna didn't know what was.

But the 'Ever-Lasting death' didn't really apply to her.

Then she had thought it might have meant Jack.

He was immortal, he died and came right back to life, so in theory, that could be called 'Ever-Lasting Death'.

But with him, the most faithful part was only partly true.

He had waited over a hundred years to find the Doctor again, but he then left for his own life again, twice now.

But now she knew the truth behind the words.

 _She_ was the companion that was destined to die.

She was the most faithful, because just touching the severed hand with the Doctor's regeneration energy in it hadn't sparked off the Metacrisis. It was her own belief that it would save her, that _the Doctor_ would save her, which sparked it off.

Her belief in him - her best friend - _that_ was what made her the most faithful companion.

And the ever-lasting death part was that if she allowed the Doctor to go ahead with his plan when he returned, the true her would die, the Doctor Donna would die, and with her memories gone, she'd be back on Earth, still alive but completely ignorant to everything she had done with the Doctor.

So in a sense, she'd be experiencing 'Ever-Lasting Death' without even knowing it.

And she was determined to find a way to stop it.

That was the thought going through her head as she tweaked a switch on the console, walking slowly in a circle around the controls.

 _"Donna… Donna… listen!"_ a whisper echoed around her.

Donna jumped and whirled around, looking around for the source of the voice.

"Hel…Hello? Who's there?" she called nervously.

 _"It's me… it's me, Donna!"_ the voice replied.

It was barely loud enough for Donna to be able to hear it.

"Who are you?" Donna demanded, getting angry and frightened, "Why can't I see you?!"

After all, hearing voices in an empty room was never a good thing, even with so many voices and thoughts now in her dangerously-close-to-burning head.

 _"Concentrate Donna… and you will see!"_ the voice ordered.

Donna, not sure what else she could do, did as the voice instructed and concentrated everything she had on the voice.

And with the power of a Time Lord/Human brain behind her, Donna gasped in shock and jumped back as a vision of a figure faded into existence before her, _inside_ the Tardis.

The console beeped and powered down, and the lights all went out leaving just the Time Rotor glowing, much less brightly then it had been a moment ago.

Donna's wide eyes swept over the form of the woman before her.

She knew who she was of course.

Seeing as it was _her_!

Standing there dressed exactly the same but with something different about her eyes, was a _second_ Donna Noble!

"But… how is that possible… oh! You're not me, you're just using my image as an interface to be able to talk to me freely" Donna quickly realised.

If she had been just a human, she'd have been spluttering and yelling about imposters and body snatchers, but now she could work out things like that without the Doctor telling her the answer.

She let out a groan of pain, clutching at her head.

She wasn't going to last much longer now.

The pressure in her mind was building up.

The moment would soon be upon them.

Soon she would be dead.

The other her smiled as Donna worked it out, but it faded into a frown as Donna's pain became more obvious.

"Do you know who I am?" the other her asked.

Donna frowned. Her voice was different too. It wasn't Donna's voice, but a voice which sounded eerily like Rose Tyler's, but it was rippling and echoing strangely.

Searching through the Doctor's memories which burned alongside her own, Donna saw the Game Station, with Rose Tyler, or more accurately Bad Wolf towering over him, his previous incarnation, as she spoke in that voice.

Frowning, Donna turned and looked over her shoulder at the console which had powered down, and the Time Rotor which was barely glowing at all now, before she turned back to the other her in realisation.

"You're _the Tardis_?!" she cried in shock.

"Yes I am! Time and Relative Dimensions in Space! What a clever girl you are!" the other her cheered in Rose's voice.

"Oh my god!" Donna gasped, before she winced as her head throbbed again.

She had just minutes left now.

She didn't have time for this!

She needed to think of a cure which would allow her to retain her memories before it was too late, or before the Doctor came back and wiped her mind.

She refused to allow him to do that.

Which meant that she couldn't be dealing with a talking Tardis right now!

"But you do have time to deal with a talking me, for I am a time machine!" the other her smirked, literally reading Donna's thoughts.

When Donna just stared at her in shock, the Tardis let out a fond sigh.

"I can translate any language inside your head but reading your thoughts is surprising to you?" she asked, rolling her eyes.

"You shouldn't be reading people's thoughts anyway" Donna snapped angrily.

"Normally I don't, but yours are so loud I can't help but hear them. And I love you so much I can't ignore them either!" the Tardis countered gently, a small tear forming in one eye.

"You what? You _love_ me? Why?" Donna asked, bewildered.

If she had said that about Doctor, she would understand, but what, apart from what she had just done to save the universe, had she done to make the Tardis care about her so much?

"Because you saved the Doctor, right from the moment I let you in. Did I let you in? I will let you in? Oh my gosh, tenses are hard, aren't they?" the other her giggled.

Donna frowned at her.

"You… _let_ me in?" Donna blinked.

This was just getting more and more confusing the longer the conversation continued.

"I'm the last Tardis. Nothing comes inside this body without my say-so!" the Tardis said cheerfully.

"Why would you let _me_ in then?" Donna asked softly.

"Because you're special, and you've always been special. Always will be special? Could be? Will be? Are? Tenses! Oh well, you're all of them!" the Tardis told her.

And she said it which such conviction that even her, _Donna_ _Noble_ , couldn't argue with it.

It was then that the other part of the Tardis' original sentence hit her.

"How did I save the Doctor? _He's_ the one that saved _me_!" Donna pointed out to the manifestation of the time machine.

"Oh no, dear Donna, _you_ most certainly saved _him_!" the Tardis told her with certainty, "He needed someone after the loss of the wolf girl; he was dark and losing himself to the storm. You pulled him back".

And then Donna was hit with a memory the Tardis was forcing upon her.

"Doctor! You can stop now!" she called up to him, drenched and in her wedding dress.

And he did.

He stopped just because she had told him he could.

"You never fell for him Donna, and he needed that. I did like that Martha girl, but she didn't help my Doctor, not in the way you did. He needed a mate and that was you, you helped him open up and heal!" the Tardis persisted.

"I'm not his mate! Friend, buddy, pal - sure! But not mate! Never mate! Mate! Mate! Mate! Mate! Mate! Ah!" Donna yelped in pain.

She stumbled back, clutching at her head, and the Tardis frowned.

"Whatever the reasons are, we don't have time to discuss them! You are dying Donna Noble, and without you the Doctor will fall so far into the darkness, he will not survive it. He may regenerate, or he may not, be _he_ will never be the same!" the Tardis proclaimed ominously, "I can see Donna. The whole of time, it's in my name after all, and he will fall further and further into the darkness without someone to pull him back, and the only one that can do so is you!".

Donna looked up at her with narrowed eyes.

"What do you want? Why are you here? Because look at me, I'm about to fail any minute. My mind will burn and I'll die. I can't help _anyone_!" she shouted, more of Donna then the Doctor shining through her tone at that moment.

"You're right. Whilst in this Metacrisis state you're useless, helpless, but as _Donna Noble_ , you could do so much more to help him!" the Tardis explained to her.

"Why are you talking with Rose's voice?" Donna wanted to know, ignoring the words the Tardis had just spoken.

She didn't want to hear it.

Because returning to being _just_ Donna Noble meant losing her memories, and she'd rather die than let that happen.

The Tardis huffed, but answered regardless.

"I can't just go _poof_ and get a voice and body! I need lot of things, but most of all I need DNA. You touched the Doctor's hand whilst I was being destroyed, and through my link to him I managed to obtain your DNA. As for the voice, I obtained that when the Wolf looked into me and I looked into her" the Tardis explained, before getting down to what was really going on, "Now, you've got a choice to make, and it can only work once, so you need to make sure you get it right".

"Let me guess, the first option is that I refuse and my mind either burns or is erased and I'm returned to Earth. Earth. Earth. Earth. Earth. Earth. Earth. Earth. Earth. Earth. _AND_ the second is that _you_ do something to me. Am I right?" Donna asked coolly.

Her head was in pieces now!

Fire burned through her and it took all her own mind's strength to try and keep it at bay.

But she couldn't hold it off for much longer.

She had merely seconds left now.

"Correct! Oh you are such a clever thing aren't you? Now, here's your second option. I take _your_ consciousness, and only yours, right back through time to the first moment I let you in here" the Tardis explained.

She empathised the _yours_ to make it clear that it would be Donna's own mind and not the Metacrisis' mind that would be going back.

"What?! But that means I'd have to relive my life, every moment with the Doctor again! That's too dangerous!" Donna protested.

Never mind the fact that she wouldn't even be able to tell him without causing a paradox, but what if the timelines themselves couldn't sustain her future mind being in her past self's body?

"Oh it's dangerous Donna. Universally-exploding dangerous, but don't worry" the Tardis beamed at her.

"Don't worry? _Don't worry_?!" Donna repeated incredulously.

"Nope, because I'll be right there will you!" the Tardis cheered, "Well, I can whisper in your mind when you're doing something that will disrupt time too much".

"What are you saying? That I should save people? Do things differently?' Donna frowned.

It was so dangerous.

She would be constantly _rewriting_ time!

The only way that could possibly work would be to take her back to the very moment she had first met him, back at her wedding, which had happened _two years_ ago for her!

"Exactly! But most importantly, you could help the Doctor. He needs opening up; he needs someone to save him from his inner demons, to show him he isn't a bad man but a hero to many, and you are the _only_ one that can. You are the best friend he's ever had. He needs you Donna, now more than ever. Will you do it?" the Tardis asked tensely.

Donna bit her lip.

Either option was going to be difficult.

But the Tardis was right.

The Doctor _needed_ to be saved, before he ended up alone and miserable.

And he was her friend!

He had _always_ done whatever he could to help her.

So now it was _her_ turn to save _him_ , even if that meant facing the hardest thing anybody could ever possibly face.

Her mind made up, Donna turned to face the Tardis, and silently nodded.

"You'll rewrite your entire time with him? Purely for him? And obviously to save yourself whilst you're at it? Don't forget that, that's very important!" the Tardis wanted to be sure.

"Yeah… I'll do it" Donna nodded.

A tear ran down her cheek as her doppelganger smiled warmly at her.

"Thank you Donna Noble, thank you!" the Tardis looked ready to hug her, but managed to refrain, "Now, first things first, don't expect too much of yourself. If you want to save people who died the first time, than by all means try, but some people just can't be saved, so don't let it dishearten you if you can't save everyone you'd like too".

Donna nodded.

She knew she'd be absolutely heartbroken if someone she tried to save ended up dying again, but the Tardis was right.

Not everyone could be saved.

Every single adventure she'd gone on with the Doctor was a testament to that.

"What's most important is that you find a way to prevent the Metacrisis from happening; it's the only way to save yourself. You can only do this once, so you need to pull it all off" the Tardis warned solemnly, "Secondly, as I've said, try to get the Doctor to open up to you more. You will never love him in the way the Wolf girl did, and that's good. He needs a friend, not someone who wants him to love her back like that. Just be yourself and I'm sure you'll manage to get him to open up to you. And fourthly… _no_... thirdly, we need to establish the bond" the Tardis finished.

"A bond so that when I'm back there my mind will still be able to hear you?" Donna assumed.

The other her nodded, gently raising her hands up.

Donna grimaced.

This wasn't going to be fun.

"Do it" Donna ordered nervously.

The Tardis placed her fingertips to Donna's temples.

"Don't worry, it won't hurt" the Tardis told her, before the sound of her whooshing noise filled the room and her eyes sparkled with a brilliant golden light.

A gold beam of pure temporal energy shot from her eyes and into the real Donna's, and a spark of golden fire fused the Tardis' consciousness to her mind.

Now they would be able to communicate without needing to speak aloud.

They would permanently be able to talk telepathically.

And it felt so strange to Donna.

It was like a warm blanket had been wrapped around her, or like she had been enveloped in a giant hug. Whatever it was, she liked the warm fuzzy feeling a lot.

But sadly, the process of establishing the bond had most certainly NOT been pain-free.

"Ow! _Hey!_ " Donna protested whilst the Tardis laughed.

"Sorry. I lied. But I didn't want to worry you" the Tardis said whilst Donna muttered in annoyance about sneaky time-space spaceships.

"Do you know what I'm going to say next, what I have said next, what I will say next, tenses!" the Tardis frowned, still struggling to get a grasp on the correct operatives.

"You're going to tell me not to go with him when he first asks, aren't you?" Donna sighed sadly.

If the Doctor was going to be lonely like he had beem when she had first met him, she wanted to be able to help him with that.

It wasn't fair that she couldn't.

"I'm sorry but he needs to find you again, like he originally did. Just before meeting you the second time, he had been imprisoned and tortured for a full year. I couldn't do anything to help him. I had been destroyed and mutilated into a Paradox Machine. You'll help pull him out of all that, and that's when he needs you the most Donna. I'm sorry, but it must be that way" the Tardis told her gently.

She placed a comforting hand on Donna's shoulder.

Comfort that was greatly needed at that moment.

Donna remained silent for a moment, needing a second to allow everything she had just agreed to do to fully sink in.

She _really_ didn't want to say no to going with him again.

It wasn't fair that he had to feel so alone for so long before she could help him.

But if the Tardis said that time would be changed too much by her going with him when he first asked, then the best thing Donna could do was listen.

That didn't mean she had to like it though.

"Okay" Donna finally sighed, like a small child giving into her parents.

"Good girl. Now, there's just one last thing to say" the Tardis smiled sadly at her.

"What's that? That? That? That? That? That?" Donna gasped as a fresh wave of pain rippled through her.

She only had about fifteen seconds left now!

The Tardis raised her hands again and placed them back on Donna's temple, and her eyes shone brighter than a golden star, a sort of pulsing energy rippling over her skin as she shone with the power of time and space.

"Good Luck" was the echoing answer she got.

That was all Donna heard, before everything faded to black.

* * *

 **And there's the prologue : )**

 **It's very similar to the original version of this chapter, just better presented. I'm working off of the original chapters and just ironing out some of the stuff that was bugging me : )**

 **Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please leave a review telling me what you thought : )**

 **Until the next time, keep on reading : )**


	2. The Runaway Bride - Part 1

**Hello : ) Thank you to everyone that read/reviewed/favourited/followed this story : ) It really means a lot when anyone does one of those things, so thank you : )**

 **I'm glad that people find the concept of it being Donna instead of Rose to travel back in time to be interesting. Don't get me wrong, I adore Rose's character, and love those type of stories, but I have another future project in mind for her as the main character, so I wanted to do this story with another favourite character : )**

 **Anyway, please remember that Doctor Who is not mine, and I hope you enjoy this chapter : )**

* * *

 **The Runaway Bride**

* * *

 **The Runaway Bride - Part 1**

* * *

Donna let out a loud, echoing scream as she tossed and turned and tumbled through time and space, through stars and planets and seconds and minutes, through swirling bright colours and jet black darkness.

It all passed through her head – or what Donna imagined was still her head, seeing as she wasn't totally sure that she had a body anymore – burning and singing and screaming and howling.

And when it was all about to get too much, Donna was slammed back into reality.

Except everything felt different.

Her head didn't hurt anymore.

The crushing pressure of the Doctor's mind had been lifted, and she felt able to breathe again.

In fact, she felt relief and comfort in her mind that had been taken when Davros had fired at her and the Metacrisis had begun.

It felt, calm, relaxed, totally herself again.

And she couldn't remember any of the Doctor's memories of Gallifrey or his travels before meeting her or any of the intimate details of Rose that only he knew before they had been passed onto her.

It was all gone, and so was the poisonous knowledge that would have killed her.

The only thing in her head was her own mind.

She was purely Donna Noble again.

But at the same time, something else was there too.

But unlike the Doctor's mind, it wasn't threatening to overwhelm and kill her.

It was sort of like a golden hum of reassurance right at the back of her mind.

The Tardis.

That's what it was.

The Tardis was there, and so were her memories of everything she had achieved with the Doctor, all their adventures and travels, and that was it.

It had worked!

It had really worked!

She wasn't going to die, or have her memories erased! Brilliant!

As a wide grin spread over her face at that realisation, it was then that Donna heard a surprised voice.

"What?!" a very familiar voice cried.

Spinning around, Donna noticed something very important.

Several things in fact.

One, she was back in the Tardis, and not only that, but it was fully powered up again and not projecting a psychic interface at her.

Two, the Doctor was there, gaping at her like he had never seen her before, which sadly he hadn't.

And three; she was currently in a wedding dress.

"Holy shit!" she cried, astonished.

Even though the Tardis had told her that she would be going back in time all the way back to the very beginning, to actually _be_ there moments later, it was more than a little overwhelming.

And he was there!

He wasn't going to erase her memories of him to save her!

This was a broken Doctor that had just lost Rose, a Doctor that needed fixing, and as his best friend, or future best friend to be as the case may be now, it was Donna's duty to assist him in any way she could.

The Tardis hummed warningly at the back of her mind.

 _"You mustn't let him know!"_ she said, but it wasn't with just Rose's voice now.

Instead it sounded almost like a multitude of voices. Like the Tardis had picked up the voices of every woman that had ever been on board and was now using them to communicate in Donna's mind.

Thankfully, the Doctor had taken her shock of being back at the very first moment she had met him as being shock to being there in the first place.

"But…" the Time Lord said weakly, looking at her, completely dumbfounded.

And with the new knowledge that she _couldn't_ tell the Doctor, Donna decided to play dumb.

"How the… where am I?" she changed her question.

She was going to say 'How the hell can I rewrite time without telling him?' but that might _just_ have let him in on the fact of what had just actually happened.

"What?!" the Doctor gaped again, causing Donna to roll her eyes.

"How the hell did I get here?!" she yelled.

All she really wanted to do was run over and hug him and have him tell her this was going to be alright, that they'd make it through this, that it would all work out in the end, but she couldn't.

If she did, he'd think she was a raving lunatic.

Especially considering she was wearing a wedding dress.

 _Oh no! It was her wedding! She was going to miss her wedding!_

Wait no, _that_ wasn't right.

That thought confused her.

Lance had betrayed her, and to add insult to injury, it was with a giant alien spider!

So why was she so bothered about getting married to him?

 _"You and you added together"_ the Tardis whispered to her.

What the hell did that mean?

Oh! It meant that the younger version of her, the one who hadn't been through all this before, she was still there - Donna could feel her anger and snap - whilst the older Donna, who had travelled with the Doctor was still there too and knew exactly what was going to happen.

It wasn't that Donna had just taken over herself, more like they had merged together.

She wasn't Super Donna or anything, just old and new layered together.

And it felt great!

 _Brilliant_ in fact!

Meanwhile the Doctor was looking around in bewilderment, as if expecting someone to suddenly pop out from behind one of the coral struts and offer him an explanation as to her presence there.

"You can't do that, I wasn't... we're in flight! That is- that is physically impossible! How did you get here?!" he demanded to know.

Donna went to open her mouth, not really sure of what to say, when suddenly it was like someone else had taken over, and her mouth was moving and saying words she didn't want to say.

"Listen to me you! Tell me this instant where am I?" she cried rudely, absolutely furious.

The Doctor looked stunned that even she had no idea, whilst Donna frowned.

Where had _that_ come from?!

 _"First you!"_ the Tardis hissed.

Donna inwardly sighed.

Was _that_ going to happen often?

Moments of her past-self breaking through to the present.

Wait no.

This hadn't happened yet, she just remembered what had… what was… going to happen.

God this was confusing, and so much stranger than everything else Donna had ever experienced.

 _"You will gain control over it"_ the Tardis assured her quietly, and Donna felt relief flow through her at that assurance.

It was a very weird and not particularly pleasant experience to have someone else speak through your mouth, even if it was a part of you from your own past.

It made her feel possessed.

She hoped she would get used to that soon.

"Inside the TARDIS" the Doctor eyed her suspiciously, speaking quietly.

"Tardis? What's a Tardis?" Donna decided to ask rather than get into a full blown shouting match like she had the last time.

But in her past self's defence, she hadn't known that he wasn't some kidnapper, rapist, or murderer.

But _this_ version of Donna did, and she didn't want to yell and scream at him, not yet at least.

"Never mind that, what I wanna know is how you got in here?" the Doctor asked, not bothering to hide his suspicion of her.

Donna mentally cringed.

That wasn't the best start - him thinking she was some kind of thief wanting to steal the Tardis and acting dumb in order to do it.

"I really have no idea, I'm not exactly dressed to suddenly disappear and reappear somewhere… very weird… all with no warning now am I?" She asked, a little bit of her past self's anger flaring up and infecting her words at the suspicion nature the Doctor was displaying.

"Hold on… what _are_ you dressed like that for?" the Doctor asked.

Donna was about to reply, when suddenly she was yelling and screaming at him in rage.

It was her past self again!

 _God_ , at this rate he was going to think she was bloody bipolar!

"I'm going ten pin bowling. WHAT DO YOU THINK! DUMBO! I WAS HALFWAY UP THE AISLE!" she bellowed before she could stop herself, before the her that remembered managed to regain control again.

She took several soothing breaths as the Doctor stiffened slightly.

She waited until all her past-self's anger had faded before she attempted to gain some kind of control over the situation before it ended up in a full blown shouting match.

"Sorry… sorry" she apologised quietly.

"It's fine" the Doctor said calmly.

Not warmly nor crossly, but evenly.

It was clear he was going to be vary of her for a while yet. Not unless she did something to regain control of this situation.

But how could she?

She didn't know what to do!

 _"Ask him where you are!_ " the Tardis urged her.

"Where am I? And don't say 'The Tardis' because I have no idea what that means" she told him.

The Doctor let out a low sigh.

"It's a spaceship; it's _my_ spaceship and home. T for Time, A for And, R for Relative, D for Dimensions, I for in, and S for Space. Time and Relative Dimensions in space" the Doctor explained to her slowly so that she could keep up.

And then…

Her past self took over again!

"That doesn't make any sense! You're just saying things!" she shrieked hysterically, before Donna was in the driver's seat again.

The Doctor stared at her, somewhat alarmed.

The way she would just… flip! It was unnatural! Unhealthy!

And very overwhelming!

"I've had just about enough of this! How did you get in here?" the Doctor demanded.

It was obvious he was losing his temper now at her antics.

She had to get her past self to shut up soon or he was probably going to have her sectioned in an asylum!

But of course, it wasn't going to be so easy, and soon her past-self was yelling her head off.

"Hey! Don't you go trying to pin the blame on me Martian Man! You're the one with the spaceship! It's obvious that you've abducted me! And if you think for a minute you're gonna be probing me anywhere, I'll be wearing ya knackers as earrings before you even can get it up and out of ya pants!" she shrieked, before she clamped a hand over her mouth.

That was so NOT meant to come out!

The Doctor looked gobsmacked by the threat and the insinuation, and Donna, the enlightened Donna, felt humiliation by that little outburst.

 _God_ \- that was so much worse than the first time she had ranted at him!

 **"Help me!"** she pleaded in her mind to the Tardis, who actually seemed to be chuckling in _amusement_ at her dilemma.

Stupid spaceship!

 _"Don't think! Clear your head!"_ she ordered and Donna obeyed, trying to push all thoughts away.

Instantly, she felt something.

It was like she was going to sleep; only _she_ wasn't… no way!

That was completely impossible!

She HAD gone to sleep.

The Tardis had closed down her past self's part of Donna's brain; put her into a deep sleep, leaving only _her_ mind in the driver's seat.

Thank God for _that_.

 **"Thank you!"** she mentally sent the words through the bond, before she turned back to the still sputtering Doctor.

Only now, she was going to have to keep up the anger.

If she didn't, he'd probably twig onto the fact that there was something different about her.

And if the Tardis said not to let him know, she _couldn't_ let him know.

Well that wouldn't be too tough, she'd just have to keep on coming across as angry. She could just think about Lance.

 _That_ would make her angry.

"Take me back! I demand you take me back right now!" she yelled at him.

It was then that she remembered the doors, and without a second thought she ran over to them.

"No, wait a minute! Wait a minute! Don't!" the Doctor cried urgently, racing after her.

Donna ignored him and threw the doors wide open, gasping at the sight before her.

Golden and pink swirling lights.

Even a second time, it was very beautiful and striking.

The beautiful Supernova, the one that the Doctor had used as a power supply to be able to send a farewell message to Rose Tyler in her parallel world.

It left her speechless, the beauty of the natural lightshow, but the Doctor mistook her silence as one of shock and distress.

"You're in space. Outer Space. This is my... space-ship. It's called the Tardis" the Doctor said gentler, but still looking at her shrewdly; as if he already knew that something about her didn't add up.

"And what? It keeps us safe? Is that how we're breathing and not being sucked out into the vacuum?" she pretended to ask.

She knew it was the Tardis of course, but still, if she didn't ask him questions he'd get even more suspicious of her.

"Exactly. The TARDIS is protecting us" the Doctor nodded.

He was actually quite impressed by her observational skills and the way she had reached that conclusion without needing it offered up on a plate.

Donna vaguely remembered that it was around this point the last time that they had introduced themselves to the other, and so that was what she decided to do next.

"I'm Donna… what about you?" she asked, trying to sound calm and quieter now.

"The Doctor. Donna what?" he asked.

"Noble. Donna Noble" she told him.

"Good, strong name. Lovely" he commented, before asking "Human?".

"Yep. Totally human, but I'm guessing you're not, seeing as we're in space in a spaceship… with wooden doors for some reason" Donna replied, once again changing the way she asked things from the last time.

For the most part, it was simply because she couldn't remember her exact wording from the original timeline, but on some subconscious level, she wanted him to see her as being cleverer.

She didn't want to appear as some angry broad with an axe to grind.

She just wanted him to… see her as more than that.

"I'm… well I suppose I'm alien to you. But to me, you're the alien. But anyway…" the Doctor trailed off.

Donna continued looking out into space, before she shivered slightly.

Remembering that she was in her wedding dress now and not her warm jumper, leather jacket, and jeans, Donna took a step back.

"It's freezing with these doors open" she told him.

The Doctor responded by closing the doors, before he dashed off up the ramp back to the console.

"But I don't understand it and I understand everything! This can't happen! There is no way a Human Being can lock itself onto the TARDIS and transport itself inside. It must be…" he was suddenly full of energy and bouncing around, eager to get started and try to solve the mystery.

And to begin with, he brought up an ophthalmoscope and was using it to peer into Donna's eyes. She tried not to go cross eyed as she tried to look at him through it.

"Impossible. Some sort of subatomic connection? Something in the temporal field? Maybe something pulling you into alignment with the Chronon shell. Maybe something macro mining your DNA within the interior matrix. Maybe a genetic…" he babbled away, getting faster and faster before Donna had enough.

"ENOUGH!" she yelled, annoyed.

The Doctor fell silent.

She really hated it when he spoke so quickly she couldn't keep up. It was so annoying and she really couldn't be bothered with any of this.

Barely an hour ago she had saved the whole of reality from complete destruction and now she was back meeting her best friend for the very first time ever.

It was enough to make her want to cry.

Add in the lack of sleep and the whole day's events catching up with her, Donna began ranting at him angrily, just… needed an outlet for all her pent-up emotional stress.

"You speak far too fast and it's giving me a headache! So just shut up Space Man and let me think!" she cried angrily.

The Doctor swayed slightly on his feet, but was silent.

"So… I got pulled inside your spaceship, and you have no idea how. I was at my wedding… what's my wedding got to do with your Tardis?" she demanded.

She knew this was sneaky, trying to give him a clue like that, but she really didn't care.

All she wanted right now was to go to sleep, and wake up in her Tardis bedroom and find out that nothing after going to Shan Shen was real but just a nightmare.

Sadly, she knew it _was_ real, and that she needed to keep on going for now.

The Doctor didn't say anything; he just looked at her for a moment before responding.

"You told me to be quiet" the Doctor reminded her cheekily.

And that's when Donna's emotions and the stress of the never-ending day got the better of her.

Whipping her hand through the air faster than one could blink, she slapped the Doctor around the face, hard. His head jerked back and he stumbled back.

"What was _that_ for?" the Doctor cried indignantly, rubbing his sore cheek.

"For being a cheeky sod! Now this all started at my wedding so you take me there right now!" she shrieked at him.

The Doctor just stared at her; slack jawed, before an angry look took over his face.

"Right! Fine! I don't want you here anyway! Where is this wedding?" he demanded, throwing his instruments down and moving over to the console.

"Saint Mary's, Hayden Road, Chiswick, London, England, Earth, the Solar System" she told him, saying it slowly to make it stick, as if talking to a half-wit.

She knew it wasn't really necessary, but if she had just said Saint Mary's, chances are they would end up on a different continent instead of a few miles away across London with the Doctor's terrible driving.

That was when she spotted the same purple blouse that she had seen last time.

And that gave her an idea.

The Tardis had said to get him to open up more, so why not start now?

"So who else is here?" she asked quietly.

The Doctor looked up from the controls at her, shocked.

"What?" he practically squeaked, amazed by her observational abilities.

"That blouse. Unless you're a cross-dressing alien, I'm fairly sure it belongs to a girl, so where is she?" Donna asked.

"She's gone" the Doctor said miserably.

Donna's heart clenched in sympathy for him.

It was such a cruel twist of fate that the universe had given him Rose back, only for him to lose her all over again.

"Where? What happened to her?" Donna asked gently.

She didn't like this much, having to pretend not to know things, but she knew she had to.

She couldn't allow him to find out the truth about what she had just done.

And he needed to open up more; it wasn't healthy from him to keep so much bottled away. So if she had to play dirty to get him to tell her the truth than she would.

"I lost her" the Doctor said darkly, not looking at her, concentrating on the controls.

"I'm sorry" she said gently.

The Doctor looked up at her sharply, almost angrily.

"She's not dead! She isn't! She is _alive_ and safe and living her life! She just… she's gone. Now! Right! Chiswick!" he growled as he turned away from her.

Well, _that_ was a little more than the last time.

Last time they had been bouncing up and down the motorway before he told her Rose was still alive.

Maybe this whole 'Opening up' thing would be easier than she thought.

But of course, this was only one sentence.

It would take a hell of a lot more than that to get the Doctor to stop shutting himself off like he always did when he claimed he was 'alright'.

"Good! Now, once I've got to my wedding maybe than we can get this whole thing sorted out" Donna said to change the subject.

Now that she didn't have the past her screaming at her for control, she didn't actually want to go to the wedding, but she knew she had too.

And that meant one thing she wasn't sure she was prepared for.

She was going to have to face Lance.

She had loved him, but she didn't now. Not now she knew the truth about him, how lowly and cowardly he was.

But if it meant sorting this whole thing out before she was free to travel again, she'd do it. Only because she _had_ too though and certainly not because she _wanted_ too.

"Hope so" the Doctor grunted.

He didn't sound too happy about what he had just let slip, and Donna knew he was going to be more guarded around her in the future now.

But if there was one thing Donna Noble could do, it was argue.

So this time, she was going to fight tooth and nail to get more out of him before the day was done.

Suddenly they landed with a loud bump which almost threw them off their feet, and Donna poked her head out the door, sighing in annoyance.

Of course, why did she expect anything different?

They were in that street again!

The same one they had ended up at last time.

"Space Man? You might wanna take your test for this thing again. We're in London, but in completely the wrong county!" she called to him.

She heard him groan before he rushed out the door, and then he began stroking the Tardis door in concern.

Donna just looked at him funnily.

Even though she had seen him do that hundreds of times before, it was still weird to see a grown man stroking a wooden door.

"Something's wrong with her" he muttered to himself.

Donna rolled her eyes, before she sent another message to the Tardis.

 **"What is it? What's happened to you?"** she asked in concern.

 _"Huon particles in you and the air! Making me feel sick!"_ the Tardis called back.

 **"Oh yeah! I forgot about that. Sorry"** Donna replied back in her mind.

The Doctor of course had no idea about the silent conversation behind his back before he was off talking again.

"It's like she's... recalibrating!" he mused before he ran back into the Tardis, right up to the console.

"She's digesting" he called back to Donna, who was barely paying attention.

She was much more absorbed in her discussion with the Tardis.

 **"What do I do? He's already suspicious! How do I throw him off?** " Donna asked frantically.

 _"React to me!_ " was all the Tardis said before the telepathic connection ended.

Donna was confused for a moment about what that meant, before the penny dropped.

Oh... right.

She should probably be freaking out right about now.

"Oh my god! It's, it's … it's bigger on the inside!" Donna cried, feigning distress.

The Doctor turned around and calmly walked back out of the box and over to her.

"Yes it is. But right now Donna, I need you think carefully. Has anything odd happened to you? Anything… different. Like, I don't know… Anything you might've done? Any sort of alien contacts? I can't let you go wandering off in case you're dangerous. I mean, have you... have you seen lights in the sky? Or... did you touch something? Something… something different? Something strange? Something made out of a sort of metal or... who're you getting married to? Are you sure he's human? He's not a bit overweight with a zip around his forehead, is he?" he asked her gently.

"Doctor, it's my wedding day, _that_ is what's different to normal. And that's where I was when I ended up in the Tardis, I was walking down the aisle, so it has to be linked to that in some way" Donna told him softly.

The Doctor frowned, not convinced and not understanding how a simple human wedding could end with the bride ending up in his Tardis, but he nodded relentlessly.

It was the only thing he had to go on right now.

Blimey this woman was good!

Sort of reminded him of… _no -_ there was only one of her and this woman would NOT be replacing her.

Nobody could ever replace his beautiful precious Rose.

Pushing that thought away, the Doctor meekly responded to Donna's last sentence.

"Right, well then… Donna Noble… let's not keep your groom waiting" he said, plastering a smile onto his face.

He then grabbed her hand and pulled her away in a run, causing Donna to laugh slightly as they barged out of the alleyway they were in and out into the hectic high street.

Donna spotted a taxi and ran for it, waving her hand madly.

But the driver ignored her, and the black car sped past her.

"Oi!" she cried in annoyance, before running off to attract the attention of another one.

But it ignored her too.

The Doctor tried to help as well, but they just kept ignoring them both.

"Do you have this effect on everyone?" the Doctor wondered, "Why aren't they stopping?".

"They think I'm in fancy dress" Donna shook her head.

She knew what was coming next, and god was it humiliating!

"Stay off the sauce darlin'!" a man laughed as he drove past her.

"He thinks I'm drunk" she winced, waiting for it…

Two young teenage boys drove past.

"You're fooling no-one, mate!" they roared with laughter as they sped off.

When Donna just pressed a hand to her forehead, the Doctor looked between her and the car speeding away.

"Do they… do they think you're in drag?!" the Doctor asked incredulously, before he shoved his fist into his mouth to muffle his fits of laughter.

"Shut up" Donna warned him.

She then stuck her two little fingers into the corners of her mouth and blew hard.

The Doctor pressed his hands to his ear, wincing at the piercing whistle.

Immediately, a taxi pulled over and she opened the door.

"A warning might have been nice" the Doctor grumbled.

"Be quiet, and get in quickly" she ordered and the Doctor obeyed, scooting over so Donna could get in too.

"Where too love?" the driver asked.

"Saint Mary's in Chiswick, just off Hayden Road" Donna replied, before turning to the Doctor.

"Please tell me you have some money" she pleaded.

"Err… nope. Why, don't you?" he looked at her in confusion.

"Look at me, I'm currently sporting a very nice and even more expensive wedding dress. Tell me Doctor, have you ever once in your life seen a bride carrying a purse or a handbag? No, and that's because they don't. Nor do they have pockets, or shove rolled up tenners in their bra!" Donna ranted at him.

It seemed she had been just a little too loud however, as the driver brought the taxi to a grinding halt and turned back to face the two of them.

"No means of payment, no ferry, now hop it!" he commanded rudely, jerking his head in the direction of the door.

Sighing, Donna got out and the Doctor followed her.

The taxi sped away.

"What a git, no Christmas spirit at all!" Donna complained to the Doctor rather than hurling insults after the driver like she remembered doing last time.

The Doctor looked down at her in surprise.

"Is it Christmas?" he asked, looking around and spotting some holiday decorations in various shop windows.

"Well it is on this planet! Not sure about the other ones you've been on" she smirked at him teasingly, before she remembered herself.

She was supposed to be acting more grumpy and angry about the way her 'special day' was turning out.

She shouldn't be this playful yet!

Spinning around for a way to fix that little slip, Donna spotted a telephone box and beamed at the sight of it.

"Aha! A phone box! I can call them and reverse the changes! Ha!" she laughed happily as she jogged over to it and picked up the phone.

The Doctor forced his way into the booth too, and with a loud buzzing noise, Donna saw him use his sonic screwdriver on the receiver.

"What was that thing?" she played dumb.

"My Sonic Screwdriver" the Doctor said proudly.

"Are you 'The Doctor' or 'The Janitor'?" she joked as she began typing on the keypad.

"Definitely The Doctor. Now call direct and I'll go get some money" the Doctor stated before he dashed off.

Donna frowned as she thought for a moment.

What would say she to her mother?

The last time, Sylvia had started on her about 'silly little pranks' and how Donna's message had been interpreted as a joke.

Whilst she argued very heatedly with her mother and their relationship was very strained, maybe this opportunity to strengthen her relationship with the Doctor could also be used to improve her relationship with her mother too.

So with a new resolve in heart, Donna began her message.

"Mum, its Donna! Some very strange stuff is going on but I'm still in the city. I'm not really sure where I am, but I'm on my way to the reception. I think it's too late to get married now but I haven't got cold feet or anything. I'm sorry and just… try not to worry. I love you mum" Donna said before she hung up.

Hopeful that message would make her mum worry less and at least if it didn't, Donna had told her exactly where she would be heading too.

Exiting the booth, Donna looked around for the Doctor.

She spotted him by a cash machine.

Donna knew that last time she had borrowed a tenner of that woman - who she remembered NOT paying back despite promising she would, oops! - and getting into that taxi with the Santa that kidnapped her, and that had burnt out the Tardis.

But maybe this time, she could avoid all that.

And she certainly didn't want to have to jump out into a motorway again. She began to walk towards the Doctor.

 _"No! You must meet Santa!"_ the Tardis hummed urgently in her mind, and Donna stopped.

 **"Oh no, really, seriously. You want me to get kidnapped all over again?!"** Donna protested irritably.

 _"You must! The Doctor needs to know about them!"_ the Tardis warned and Donna sighed.

That was true.

Without her being kidnapped by the Santas, he wouldn't have found out about them and rescued her.

And they wouldn't have had that talk on the roof where she had let slip about her place of work or how she met Lance.

And without that, they wouldn't be able to deal with the Racnoss and the Doctor wouldn't know what had caused her to be dozed with Huon particles.

And he needed to know all of that!

It was so important.

It could _not_ be changed.

 **"It's a tipping point isn't it?"** Donna said quietly.

The Doctor had explained fixed points before, and he had also explained tipping points.

Tipping points were moments which could be changed, like Flux time, but different seeing as completely different events occurred depending on which way the tipping point went.

A whole new sequence would play out, but this one needed to happen in the way the original had or it would be a disaster for the whole world.

The Racnoss would take over the world and wipe out every human, and the entire future timeline would just… shatter.

This was such an important tipping point Donna nearly felt sick thinking about it!

 _"It is! And it must go the way you remember! Or else the Doctor will die under the water!"_ the Tardis cried in distress.

Donna winced as she remembered what had happened in her little alternate universe created by the Time Beetle.

But it would be _so much worse_ this time.

Because she would die too and then there'd be no one to undo the damage.

Martha Jones, Sarah Jane Smith, Captain Jack and Torchwood. They'd all die in exactly the same way they had in her alternate universe.

All because she didn't get into that taxi with the Santa.

God this was such a mess!

But if it was a choice between doing what was right and doing what was easy, the Doctor, her best friend version the Doctor, would want her to do what was right, just like he had shown her.

Donna changed paths and stepped in front of the woman she had asked last time and put on a pleading, distressed face which was actually very convincing.

"Excuse me… I'm begging you. I'm getting married, I really am and I'm late and I just need to borrow a tenner and I'll pay you back I promise and its Christmas" she begged pitiully.

Out of the corner of her eye, Donna saw the Doctor at the machine, using the sonic on it.

Oh she'd have to be quick!

The woman, who was almost laughing in bewilderment, pulled out her purse and gave Donna the money. And this time, Donna expressly offered to meet up at a little café just across the road in a couple of days' time so that she could pay her back.

With that done and settled, Donna dashed towards the taxi and got into the back.

"Listen Bolt Bucket, I know exactly who and what you are, so you watch it, and you keep watching" Donna growled at it, pulling back the robot's hood and its Santa mask fell away, revealing the golden metal face of the Robo-Form.

Without replying to her, the Robo-Form put its foot down hard on the accelerator and they were off, going forty miles an hour in less than ten seconds.

Looking over her shoulder and out the back window, Donna saw the Doctor yelling after her, before he ran off in the direction of the Tardis.

Donna sighed, beyond exhausted.

This was where time tipped.

She hoped that she might be able to change some in the future.

* * *

Last time, Donna remembered screaming and hammering on the windows, but this time she was just silently sitting there, reflecting to herself.

The Doctor would save her, so she might as well conserve her energy.

And she was thinking about what she could do to try and help alter events.

So far, not much was coming to her.

Everything that had happened last time had directly caused something else to happen.

So if she changed anything, the whole timeline could easily shatter.

She felt a tiny bit of resentment towards the Tardis for placing her in this position before she crushed it down.

The Tardis had been _saving_ her!

Saving the Doctor from being _alone!_

She should be grateful, and this was just the first hurdle.

She had plenty more trying times to face if she was going to pull this off.

She was just praying that she had the strength to do it.

It was then that Donna heard the loud bumping of wood against tarmac, and turning to look out the window, Donna beamed as she saw the Tardis flying towards her.

"Nice one Space Man" she whispered to herself.

She then confidently leaned forwards to talk to the Robo-Form.

"You see that! That's my friend, and he's come to get me!" she taunted the robotic creature before she wound down the window, just as the Tardis pulled up alongside, hovering next to her.

"Doctor! The door's locked!" she called before he could even open his mouth.

Growling, the Doctor reached into his pocket and pulled out the sonic, using it on the door.

The lock clicked open.

"Donna, you've got to jump!" the Doctor called.

Just as Donna was about to open the door however, the car sped up, making her fall back onto the seat with a small squeal of surprise.

Looking out the window again, Donna saw the Doctor tugging on a bit of string and the Tardis rocketed forwards, smacking the back of the car in front.

Pointing his sonic at the driver, the Doctor fused his hands and stopped him from moving away again.

"Come on Donna!" he called encouragingly.

Donna bravely threw the door open.

But then she made the mistake of looking down and seeing the road moving so quickly beneath her, Donna gasped.

"I… Doctor I can't!" she exclaimed, frightened.

"You can Donna! You can do it, jump!" the Doctor encouraged her gently.

Loathing herself for using such a dirty move but knowing it was necessary to get the Doctor to open up more, Donna said words similar but also different to what she had asked the first time.

"That friend of yours, what was her name?" Donna asked.

The Doctor looked at her incredulously.

"Now? You're asking me this _now_?!' he looked at her, his mouth hanging open at her appalling time for such personal questions.

" _Yeah_ , I'm asking you this _now_ " she countered.

The Doctor growled in annoyance.

It was absolutely _none_ of her business.

He didn't want to talk about Rose.

Not with some stranger. Especially, well, a _strange_ one.

But if it got her to hurry up and jump, the Doctor supposed he had no choice but to tell her.

"Her name was Rose Tyler, happy?" he glared at her.

"Rose… lovely name, but what I wanna know it, did she trust you? Could she jump out of a car into traffic and you'd get her away safely?" she wanted to know.

The Doctor stared at her, shocked at how she had related Rose to this situation, but answered anyway.

"Yes she did. She trusted me more than she ever trusted anybody else. I always put her safety first, and that's why she's gone. So yes, Rose Tyler trusted me… and you can too, now jump Donna!" the Doctor called.

Feeling a sense of satisfaction at managing to get all that out of him, Donna literally threw herself from the taxi and into his waiting arms.

The force of her jump knocked them both over, and using her feet, Donna kicked the Tardis doors closed.

The Doctor rolled out from underneath her and sprinted towards the controls.

And within moments Donna felt the Tardis flying upwards.

Far away from the motorway, and onto the next setting of this familiar adventure.

* * *

 **And there's part one : )**

 **So what do people think? I was aiming for a bit of comedy what with Donna's past consciousness being awake and yelling abuse, so I hope that came off alright : )**

 **Also, just to clarify in case somebody asks, when Donna and the Tardis are communicating, it is telepathic and only the two of them can hear each other. The Doctor can't hear them, not can any other telepathic beings : )**

 **Anyway, thank you for reading this chapter, and please leave a review telling me your thoughts and opinions so far : )**

 **Until the next time, keep on reading : )**


	3. The Runaway Bride - Part 2

**Hello : ) I'm glad that people seem to be liking this story and are offering up suggestions in reviews. The ones left were really useful, so thank you, and always feel free to do that if there's anything you'd like to see in the future of this story : )**

 **Also, thank you to everyone reviewed the last chapter : )** **All the support really does mean a lot, so please keep it up : )**

 **Please remember that Doctor Who is not mine, and I hope you enjoy this chapter : )**

* * *

 **The Runaway Bride - Part 2**

* * *

With her legs hanging over the edge of the rooftop they were on, Donna hummed lightly to herself as the Doctor used a fire-extinguisher to put a small fire that had sparked in the Tardis out.

Having checked her watch, Donna knew that the wedding was over now.

Not that she minded.

Soon enough the truth about Lance would be exposed and he had more than got what was coming to him in the original timeline.

But maybe _this_ time, she could save him.

Then she'd slap him from wall to wall from what he had done to her.

A bright smile overtook her face at that thought, but she quickly removed it as the Doctor plonked down next to her, his own feet dangling over the edge too.

"The funny thing is, for a spaceship, she doesn't really do that much flying. We'd better give her a couple of hours" the Doctor told her, because kindly asking "You all right?"

No.

 _Of course_ she wasn't!

Since waking up from her bed she had been sucked into an alternate universe and had then had to restore her own personal timeline, she had went on a wild goose chase around the universe looking for her own planet, she had nearly burnt to death in the Tardis, caused a biological Metacrisis, saved every single universe for a murdering maniac and had been sent back down her own timeline to this very day.

All right?

Not so much!

But of course she couldn't say any of that, so instead she decided she'd better reply with something else.

"Yeah… I suppose… just, well... we missed it' Donna told him, faking sadness over the loss of her wedding day.

But really, she had moved on, it didn't hurt so much anymore, and she knew from experience, her life would go on.

Seeing everything that was out in space, it really had put her wedding day in perspective, and considering what her 'fiancée' was really up too; she was rather delighted that she _hadn't_ married him!

"Well, you can book another date" the Doctor suggested, trying to cheer her up.

"I don't know, maybe… but anyway, still got the holiday, you know, what would have been our honeymoon" Donna shrugged it off.

It wasn't real.

It never had been.

It was just her past-self's mistake, but she knew better now.

"Yeah... yeah... sorry" the Doctor mumbled apologetically.

"Nah, you were just as surprised as I was Space Man, so it's not really your fault" she told him sincerely.

"Oh! That's a change from an alien with a probe that needs to keep his thing in his pants" the Doctor laughed.

Donna couldn't help but join in.

She honestly couldn't believe that that had come out of her mouth!

It was so embarrassing, but his face had been just priceless.

"Well anyway, it's not like you've got a time machine so we can't go back and get it right anyway" Donna said jokingly.

"Nah, but even if I did, I couldn't go back on someone's personal timeline… apparently" the Doctor shrugged, trying to be nonchalant and failing miserably.

Donna rolled her eyes.

If _that_ wasn't a big enough hint that he was lying, she didn't know what was.

"Anyway, you'd better put this on" the Doctor suddenly said.

He pulled a simple gold wedding ring out of his jacket pocket.

"Oh thank you very much" Donna pretended to drawl sarcastically for appearances' sake, "Is it fun, rubbing it in?"

"Those creatures can trace you" the Doctor gently explained as he slipped the ring on her finger, "This is a bio-damper. Should keep you hidden".

Donna inwardly shook her head.

This tiny piece of metal wasn't going to do _anything_ for her!

"With this ring, I thee bio-damp" he joked.

"For better or for worse" Donna laughed, before a new thought occurred to her.

Something she hadn't even considered in the first timeline.

And before she could stop herself, Donna found herself voicing her question.

"Hold on, what have you got a wedding ring for? Were you going to propose to Rose or something?" she asked, trying to be casual.

Apparently she failed, for the smile was sucked right off the Doctor's face.

"No! I wasn't! It… wasn't like that… I… and she… but no… it was nothing like that, well it was just not that far along… no, I wasn't" the Doctor fumbled over his words.

"Well what was it then?" she asked gently.

"It doesn't matter, because she's gone" the Doctor said grumpily.

Sighing, Donna decided to let it drop… for now.

"So, anyway, Christmas, robot Santas? What's it all about?" Donna asked, suddenly wanting to change the subject.

It seemed cracking him open was going to be harder than she had first thought, but this was a good start.

She could build upon this later.

"Ah, your basic Robo-scavenger" the Doctor stated, though his voice was still a little cool compared to usual, "The Father Christmas stuff is just a disguise. They're trying to blend in. I met them last Christmas".

"Why, what happened then?" she asked.

She _still_ couldn't really remember what had happened that Christmas.

Stupid bloody hang-over!

"There was a great big spaceship? Hovering over London? You didn't notice?" he looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Everyone up on a roof, yeah?" she 'asked' .

The Doctor nodded.

"That's the one" he confirmed.

"Yeah, I heard about that. I had a bit of a hangover so I can't really remember it myself" she shrugged.

The Doctor just looked at her pointedly, but apparently decided it wasn't worth pursuing.

Instead, the Time Lord scanned the London landscape surrounding them.

"I spent Christmas Day just over there, the Powell Estate. With this… family. Rose, she had this family. Well, they were… still... gone now" he said softly, sadness lining his tone.

Donna looked at him sympathetically.

She hated just how raw this all was for him.

Although, even in the future, he still wasn't over losing Rose.

He was just a little better at bottling it up.

"Doctor, what happened to Rose? Where did she go?" Donna asked gently, wishing he'd just open up to her and let her help.

But it seemed the Doctor was in no mood to continue talking about Rose Tyler.

It was obviously too painful for him right now.

"The real question is, what do camouflaged robot mercenaries want with you? And how did you get inside the TARDIS? I don't know…" the Doctor frowned instead of answering.

Donna scowled in annoyance.

Always a closed book!

Well that would be changing if she managed to get her own way, which she would.

She was Donna Noble, Argumentative Queen Extraordinaire!

"Well, there's got to be something about me which separate me from a normal person. So do some kind of alien scan and find out what it is" Donna ordered, remembering him doing that in the previous timeline.

"Oh, good idea!" the Doctor cried, obviously impressed by that suggestion.

Practically diving into his pocket, he brought out the sonic and began scanning her with it.

"What's your job?" he asked as he scanned her.

Donna couldn't feel but feel a twinge of excitement in her stomach.

This was it.

The moment the pieces all started falling into place.

"I'm a secretary. I work at a place called H.C. Clements as a temp. It's where I met Lance" Donna started to explain, whilst the Doctor frowned over his results.

"It's weird. I mean there's got to be something about _you_ that they're interested in, but… you're not special, you're not powerful, you're not connected, you're not clever, you're not important…" the Doctor listed.

Donna grew redder and redder in the face with every word.

"You are coming dangerously close to getting another smack you are Martian Boy!" she warned him threateningly.

The Doctor gulped fearfully.

He lowered the sonic and pocketed it again before he said anything else to offend her.

"Sorry. So anyway, H.C. Clements and Lance, tell me about it" he instructed and Donna obeyed.

She didn't like talking about Lance, but she knew this was all stuff he needed to know to be able to solve all this.

"Well it was all a bit posh really. I'd spent the last two years at a double glazing firm. Well, I thought I'm never gonna fit in here. But then he made me a coffee. I mean, that just doesn't happen. Nobody gets the secretaries a coffee. I thought it was really odd at the time" Donna explained.

The Doctor looked at her sharply.

"'Odd'? How do you mean 'odd'?" he asked curiously.

"Well... I mean, he's the head of HR right? So what's he interested in me for? But he was nice, he was funny. I did wonder if he was just using me for something, but then I fell for him and I sort of managed to convince him to marry me… not so sure it was a good idea now. It was only six months ago after all" Donna explained.

Inwardly she was cheering however.

Throughout that little chat she had dropped in some very important points which might just make the Doctor more wary of the man when they met.

At least that way, the Doctor would know beforehand, which could only be a good thing.

"Yeah... it is _bit_ a quick to get married" the Doctor agreed.

"I know! But it just felt so right! And then all this happens and it makes me wonder if it just wasn't meant to be" Donna sighed for show.

But again, she was deliberately trying to suggest without outright saying it that something in their relationship wasn't quite right.

She just hoped that her Space Man would pick up on it.

Sensing this was quickly becoming a bit touchy for Donna, the Doctor changed the subject back to her place of work.

"So what does H.C. Clements actually do?" he asked curiously.

"Oh, security systems, you know, entry codes, ID cards, that sort of thing. If you ask me, it's a posh name for 'locksmiths'. Still, good business considering it basically just makes keys" Donna dropped another hint.

She felt a low hum in the back of her mind from the Tardis.

There were no words though.

It was just a 'silent' warning to stop before he became suspicious.

That would be the last hint for now then, but it seemed as though he had picked up on that one.

"Keys…" he mused aloud.

Donna decided it was time to turn the tables on him.

"Anyway, enough about me... it's your turn" she told him bluntly.

The Doctor stared at her, slightly shocked by the firmness in her voice.

"What?" he practically yelped.

"I've told you about my relationship, so it's only fair you tell me about yours. Now, what were you and Rose to each other?" she demanded.

The Doctor looked flabbergasted.

Donna just looked at him pointedly, warningly even, and then to her complete amazement, his firmly built shields began to crack ever so slightly.

"She was my… _everything_. But I never told her. There was… there was this moment when I was saying goodbye, right before you appeared actually, and I managed to get out 'Rose Tyler'... but before I could finish the transmission ended" the Doctor whispered mournfully, "I never got the chance to tell her how much I loved her".

Donna could swear she saw a tear sparkling in his eye.

"Where is she Doctor? Why can't you go get her?" she asked gently, patting his arm.

She _hated_ having to do this.

To act like she knew nothing about all this in her attempts to get him to open up.

In a way, it felt like she was betraying him.

Like she was using the information she had gathered in the past timeline to attack him with now.

 _"It's not a betrayal if you are only trying to help him"_ the Tardis assured her.

 **"Thanks, but I still feel pretty scummy doing this to him"** Donna whispered back.

 _"It is necessary"_ the Tardis said with absolute certainty, _"It is for his own good"._

Donna's attention was brought back to the present as the Doctor heaved a miserabe sigh.

"She's trapped in a parallel universe, and I can't get there because the walls between the worlds are sealed up again" he began to explain, "She's gone forever; she'll never be coming back this time" he finished miserably.

Donna just patted his arm in sympathy.

He didn't deserve this, and worse than that, Donna _knew_ he was wrong.

Rose _would_ be coming back, but she couldn't even tell him.

It wasn't fair.

But that was the way it had to be.

And hey, if she managed to avoid the Metacrisis, there wouldn't be a duplicate Doctor for Rose to care for, and that meant that maybe Rose would be able to stay with the Doctor like they had both wanted.

It was no less than they both deserved after all.

"Anyway, enough of all this" the Doctor suddenly said, fighting desperately hard to regain some form of composure, "Isn't it about time that we get you back to your family? Won't they be worried?"

Donna sighed inwardly.

She should have known that him being so open wouldn't last long.

But that had been good.

He had _actually_ admitted that he _loved_ Rose.

she couldn't remember a time in the original timeline when he had ever admitted that!

Maybe it was because it was so close after she was gone.

Perhaps he was a bit more vulnerable about the whole thing.

Still, he was right.

It was time to get this show on the road.

"Yeah, I suppose. I told my mum to go to the reception so that's where they'll all be. And you can come too. I'm not explaining all this on my own Martian Boy" she smirked as she got to her feet and began walking towards the fire escape so they could get down.

The Doctor stood up too, shaking his head as he followed her.

"Yeah, I'm not from Mars" he pointed out.

Donna ignored him.

She knew _exactly_ where he was from after all, but of course, she couldn't let him know that she knew that.

She had a sinking feeling she was going to have to get used to that feeling _very_ quickly.

No matter how much she hated it.

* * *

Striding into her reception for the second time in her life, Donna looked around and felt a twinge of annoyance.

She had said to go to the reception.

That didn't mean everyone had to enjoy it so much!

She gasped slightly as she spotted Lance.

Well that proved it.

Not that she'd been in any doubt before, but this confirmed it.

She was certainly back in her own personal history.

She felt a wave of outrage flow through her as she thought about what he was really up too, but she forced it down.

She needed to act normal.

She couldn't let on that she knew, not yet at least.

Suddenly one by one everyone started to notice her, until only Lance and, much to Donna's chagrin, _Nerys_ , were the only ones dancing.

When the music cut out, both of them looked around at her.

"When I said go to the reception, I meant to _wait_ , not have the time of your lives without me!" she fumed, her voice carrying like a trumpet call.

"Donna… what happened to ya?!" Lance asked, feigning concern.

Oh, how she _longed_ to go over there and slap him.

 _Multiple_ times.

"Oh, bothered about me are you? It certainly looks like it" Donna nodded her head at his arms, which were still wrapped around Nerys.

As if realising that, Lance stepped away from the blonde harpy of a woman.

"Well you ran off, so why shouldn't he dance with someone else?" Nerys butted in rudely.

"Button it Nerys" Donna glared hotly at her rival.

"Hello! I'm the Doctor if anybody's interested" the Doctor piped up awkwardly.

"Not now" Donna hissed at him.

She turned back to the party and opened her mouth to continue her rant, but at that moment, Sylvia came strutting over to them.

"Well, what were we supposed to do? I got your message in the end, 'Don't worry'? You literally _disappeared_ Donna. Of course I was worried, you're my daughter! So I thought we could start the party to take our minds off it" Sylvia explained in annoyance, "But never mind that! What the hell happened?! How did you do it? I mean, what's the trick because I'd love to know".

Sylvia was suddenly drowned out.

Everyone started talking at once, wanting to know how she had done it and where she had gone.

Donna looked around at them all, overwhelmed.

Unable to think of another way out of this, despite _really_ not wanting to do it again, she promptly burst into tears.

She tried not to cringe in disgust as Lance wrapped his arms around her.

She just barely resisted the urge to punch him in the face for _daring_ to touch her.

He had some _bloody_ nerve, he did.

Needing something else to focus on before she smacked him, Donna turned her head and winked at the Doctor.

The Time Lord smirked in amusement.

* * *

It wasn't long before the party was back in the full swing of it.

Last time, Donna had been dancing with Lance.

This time, her skin crawled just looking at him.

But to be fair to herself, she had had a long time to just be angry at him, so it was hard to push that feeling away.

So instead of dancing, Donna had decided to get something to eat.

Despite physically being her past self, Donna's true self hadn't eaten for what felt like days, not since before the Time Beetle.

In fact, that drink she and the Doctor had had on Shan Shen was the very last thing she had consumed.

She was honestly surprised she hadn't collapsed from hunger yet.

And she knew the Doctor too.

It must have been a while since he had last eaten.

And so filling a party plate to the brim with little sandwiches and pasties and cakes, she made her way over to the Time Lord, who was leaning against the bar.

"Oi, free bar mate" Donna greeted him, drawing his attention, "Get the drinks in".

Smirking slightly, the Doctor turned to the barman and obtained two drinks.

A vodka and coke for Donna, and a Scotch for him.

"Here, thought you might be hungry, I know I am" Donna said, placing the plate on the bar.

"Thanks" the Doctor said in grateful surprise.

He picked up a mini sausage roll and munched on it hungrily.

"So, any closer to figuring out what happened?" Donna asked, trying to be casual.

"No, not yet, although I was just thinking about looking something up on the internet" the Doctor told her through a mouthful of sausage.

"What's that then?" Donna asked.

She couldn't remember this part happening in the original timeline.

But then, she had been busy dancing right now in that alternative event, so it wasn't surprising she didn't know this bit.

"Who owns H.C. Clements?" he asked her curiously, "Do you know?"

"Some organisation called Torchwood or something" Donna replied, the irony not lost on her.

After all, it had been _him_ that had told _her_ that originally.

The Doctor's face darkened, and Donna shivered.

It was like looking into the heart of a storm.

"What's wrong?" she asked in genuine concern.

"They caused the Battle of Canary Wharf" he growled, darkness in his voice and eyes.

Donna gasped, unable to believe she had forgotten _that_.

"That battle between those Cybermen things? And those other ones… err… the Daleks?" she asked, pretending to be uncertain on the name.

Now though, she'd _never_ forget them.

It had only been a few hours for her since she had met their creator!

"That's the one. They caused Rose to be trapped in the parallel world' he spat angrily.

Donna, although pleased he had offered that up without any provoking on her part, decided to change the subject before he got too angry.

"But Torchwood collapsed, so that mean's H.C. Clements stayed in business. Does that mean someone snuck in and took over?" she forced herself to ask.

"Could be. You're very good at this Donna Noble" he winked at her.

Donna inwardly gulped.

Was she making this too easy?

Was he getting suspicious?

 _"Not yet, but he might one day"_ the Tardis gently warned in her mind, _"You must be cautious"._

The Doctor looked past her as something else caught his attention.

"Oho! Look at that!" he cried, pointing at a camera man.

Donna turned, and saw that it was her cousin, Barney.

The Doctor bounded over to him, whilst Donna called after him.

"But I haven't finished!" she protested.

She really was very hungry after all.

"Later!" the Doctor called back snappishly.

" _Later_ " Donna mocked his voice in a whiny tone to herself.

She quickly drained her drink, stuffed one last sandwich into her mouth, then chased after the crazy Time Lord.

"Hello! Sorry, I was just wondering if you have footage of Donna disappearing?" he asked as Donna joined them.

"Hey Barney!" she greeted him with a little hug.

"Donna! Nice trick love, I'll give you that much" Barney smirked at her.

He then turned back to the Doctor.

"And yeah I have, I taped the whole thing, they've all had a look. They said "sell it to You've Been Framed". I said "more like the News". Here we are…" he said, beginning to play the footage.

The Doctor and Donna watched intently.

On the video, a beaming Donna was walking down the aisle, happy as Larry, when suddenly she was covered in a veil of golden particles. Screaming, she disappeared into a cloud of dust which flittered out through the ceiling.

"Can't be! Play it again?" the Doctor ordered.

Barney played it again.

"Like I said, nice trick. How _did_ you do it anyway Donna?' he asked her curiously.

"Ah Barney, never reveal your best tricks" Donna waved him off.

What else could she say?

Her fiancée had poisoned her for a giant alien spider?

Yeah.

 _That_ would go down well.

The Doctor watched the video again, a incredulous expression taking over his face.

"But that looks like... Huon Particles!" he cried in amazement.

"What the hell are Huon particles?" Donna pretended to ask.

Already this was grating on her nerves.

Knowing things but unable to tell them.

She felt the Tardis give her an encouraging hum in her mind just as the Doctor replied.

"That's impossible, that's... ancient! Huon energy doesn't exist anymore, not for billions of years! So old that…" he whirled around to face her, a look of panic covering his face.

Donna mentally braced herself.

She knew what was coming next.

She just hoped that nothing changed, and that nobody would be seriously hurt.

"It can't be hidden by a Biodamper!" the Doctor cried in alarm.

Donna forced herself to react realistically.

She _couldn't_ tell him everything would be alright after all.

"Oh my god, that means they can trace me again! They're coming here!" Donna gasped in 'shock'.

Inwardly however she was kicking herself.

How could she have been _so stupid_?!

She had led them all right to her family!

Again!

Whilst she knew that the Doctor had to find out about the secondary controller for the Robots, she _could_ have lured them somewhere where her entire family was not present.

She was going to have to really think these things through in the future if she wanted to be able to save some of the people that had been lost the first time around.

"Come on!" he cried, grabbing her hand and dragging her over to a window.

Sure enough, two robots in their red Santa coats were there, looking in.

One of them was holding a controller.

"Oh great! What's that controller for?" she asked anxiously, knowing what was about to happen.

"It controls something… but what?" the Doctor frowned, looking around the function room.

His eyes landed on a Christmas tree, and remembering what had happened last Christmas, he quickly realised exactly what it was being controlled.

"Oh no" he whispered softly.

"What? What is it?" Donna looked at him.

"I'm so sorry" the Doctor told her regrettably.

He then charged off onto the dance floor.

"Get away from the tree!" he began shouting loudly.

"Don't touch the trees!" Donna echoed.

"Get away from the Christmas trees, everyone get away from them!" the Doctor repeated.

Donna ushered some of the children away from the trees too.

"Oh, for God's sakes, the man's an idiot! Why? What's a Christmas tree gonna… _oh!_ " Donna heard Sylvia say, and she snapped her head upwards.

Looking around, Donna saw the shiny red baubles floating out across the room, spinning like little ballerinas.

Everybody watched, enthralled; all save Donna and the Doctor.

That was when the explosions started.

Like tiny bombs, the baubles exploded around the room and people screamed and ducked for cover.

Donna ducked to avoid being hit in the face by a piece of flying furniture as she chased after the Doctor. Ducking behind the DJ's platform, she and the Doctor peered around the side of it, and saw a line of six Santas standing at the other end of the dance floor.

"What do we do now?!" she bellowed over the noise to the Doctor.

The Time Lord frowned, deep in thought, before an idea came to him.

"Cover your ears" he warned her, "This is gonna be really _really_ loud".

He drew his sonic screwdriver from his pocket and stood up, revealing himself from their hiding place.

Donna shoved her fingers into her ears and scrunched up her eyes.

This was gonna hurt a lot.

"Oi! Santa!" the Doctor bellowed, "Word of advice: if you're attacking a man with a sonic screwdriver…".

He picked up the DJ's microphone.

"Don't let him near the sound system" he said into it.

With that, he pressed the sonic next to the amplifiers, causing a harsh sonic buzzing to fill the entire room.

Donna screamed loudly as she pressed her fingers further into her ears.

 _God -_ it felt even worse than last time.

Just when she felt she could take no more, the Santas were blown apart, and the Doctor stopped his assault.

"Ow... _that_ wasn't nice" Donna grumbled.

She followed him over to the Santas.

All around the room Donna's family and friends were picking themselves up and reassuring each other they'd be alright. Obviously Donna was worried about them, but she knew from the last time that nobody had been hurt, so this time she was listening more intently to what the Doctor was saying about the robots.

"Look at that, remote control for the decorations" he said, showing her the hand held remote for the decorations.

Then he pulled off one of the robots' heads and looked closely at it.

"But there's a second remote control for the robots. They're not scavengers anymore. I think someone's taken possession" the Doctor frowned.

"Probably the same person behind H.C. Clements" Donna noted, deliberately trying to get that point through to him.

"Good point" the Doctor nodded at her as he began examining the head controller.

"If I can just trace… ah! There's still a signal!" the Doctor said delightedly.

He dashed off, but not before slipping some of the baubles and the remote into his bigger on the inside pockets.

Donna went to run off after him, but stopped when she heard her mother, sounding so scared it hurt Donna to hear, calling out to her.

"Donna… who is he? Who is that man?" Sylvia asked, trembling.

Last time Donna hadn't had an answer for her.

This time, she _did_.

"He's the Doctor mum" she told her mother simply, "And he's the one who's gonna save you and me and everyone else on this whole planet".

Without so much as another word, Donna ran off after him.

* * *

Finding the Doctor standing in the middle of the car park, the sonic pointed at the sky, Donna rushed over to him.

"You were right Donna! There's someone behind this, directing the Robo-force!" the Doctor cried at her when she reached him.

"So what are they up to? And how did I get stacked up with those Huon Particles?" she pretended to ask, "Especially considering they're not even meant to exist anymore?"

"I don't know yet, but I'm working on it" the Doctor assured her.

"Well, what are you doing with that?" she asked, pointing at the sonic.

"Trying to find the controller. If we find that, we'll get the answers to everything else too" the Doctor explained.

The sonic beeped loudly.

"Oh, I've got the signal, I've got it! It's up there. Something in the sky!" the Doctor cried, and Donna winced, remembering the Star Web; not just in _this_ reality but in her alternate one caused by the Time Beetle.

"A spaceship?" she 'asked'.

"Could be" the Doctor nodded.

The sonic stopped beeping.

The Doctor groaned in disappointment.

"I've lost the signal" he cried before spinning around to face her.

"You were right Donna; we've got to get to your office, H.C. Clements. That's got to be where it all started. Lance - is it Lance? Can you give me a lift?" he asked hopefully.

Turning, Donna saw that Lance had followed them out.

Again, she was almost overwhelmed by the urge to lunge at him and knock the crap out of him.

But she forced herself to be calm.

She _couldn't_ lost it.

So instead, she forced herself to act naturally.

"No, no, no, no, no, you've been drinking, we'll go in mine" Donna shook her head.

After all, the last thing they needed was getting pulled over by a copper.

And if Lance got arrested, she had no idea how things would turn out with the Express.

"You had that vodka" the Doctor reminded her.

"But it was diluted by the coke and I only had one!" Donna cried as she ran off in the direction of her little pink Honda.

Donna jumped into the driver's seat whilst Lance got into the passenger's side. The Doctor clambered into the back.

And then she was off and away.

But of course, unless it was by Tardis, it was far too slow for the Doctor's liking.

"Not exactly a chase is it?" he grumbled.

"Oi! There's a speed limit, and if we get pulled in how are we gonna find out what's going on then? And anyway, I'm wearing a wedding dress. I'll never live it down if I go to jail dressed like this" Donna retorted.

The Doctor huffed, but didn't complain again.

Soon enough they arrived outside the towering white skyscraper that was H.C. Clements. The three of them rushed in, dashing to the lift and going all the way up to the floor that Donna worked on.

"This might just be a locksmiths, but if Torchwood were the ones to set this place up then there's got to be a reason" the Doctor thought aloud.

"Torchwood? Who the hell are they?" Lance cried.

"They worked at Canary Wharf, and they caused that battle between the Cyberman and the Daleks a few months ago" Donna told him without sparing him a glance.

If she did have to look at him again, she probably deck him.

Thankfully, the Doctor took over for her.

"Torchwood was destroyed, but H.C. Clements stayed in business. I think you were right again Donna. Someone else came in and took over the operation" the Doctor said.

"And they're behind the Huon Particles? Or was it someone closer to home?' Donna 'asked'.

She bit down a smirk at the nervous look on Lance's face, but was glad to see a calculating one set into the Doctor's.

"Another good point. OH! That's how you did it!" the Doctor beamed.

"Did what?" Donna frowned at him

"Got into the Tardis! You see Huon energy hasn't existed since the Dark times. The only place you'd find a Huon particle now is a remnant in the heart of the TARDIS. See? That's what happened. Say... that's the TARDIS" he said, holding up a blue mug.

"And that's you" he carried on, picking up a yellow pencil.

"The particles inside you activated. The two sets of particles magnetised and WHAP!" he cried, throwing the pencil into the mug.

"You were pulled inside the Tardis" he beamed at her.

"Are you saying that I'm a pencil inside a mug?" she asked, trying to sound offended, but really all she was doing was trying to wind him up.

"Yes, you are. 4H. Sums you up" the Doctor said cheekily.

" _Excuse me?!_ Are you commenting on my breast size?" she huffed, still keeping the pretence going just a little longer.

"No! I wasn't! I just meant…" the Doctor squeaked nervously.

Donna smirked, letting out a little giggle.

"You're not cross. You're just playing! That is SO unfair!" the Doctor pouted.

Donna couldn't help it.

She started laughing her head off.

Huffing and shaking his head, the Doctor turned to Lance.

"Lance? What was H.C. Clements working on? Anything top secret? Special operations? Do not enter?" he asked, mostly just to ignore Donna teasing him.

"I don't know; I'm in charge of personnel. I wasn't project manager. Why am I even explaining myself?! What the hell are we talking about?" Lance cried defensively.

"Alright sweetheart, calm down, there's no need to be so defensive" Donna pretended to calm him, forcing the word 'Sweetheart' and not 'Dickhead' from her lips.

But what she was really doing was dropping another hint about Lance's character.

She just hoped that the Doctor was picking up on all these signals.

"This place makes keys, that's the point. And look at this…" the Doctor said, bringing up a 3D plan of the building onto the computer screen of the desk they were standing by.

"We're on the third floor…" he started, before he strode off towards the lift.

Donna and Lance followed after him.

"Underneath reception, there's a basement, yes?" he continued as they reached the glass doors.

Pressing the button the doors pinged open and the Doctor stepped inside, looking at the lift controls.

"Then how come when you look on the lift, there's a button marked 'lower basement'? There's a whole floor which doesn't exist on the official plans. So what's down there, then?" the Doctor mused aloud.

"Are you telling me this building's got a secret floor?" Lance scoffed.

It was obvious he was trying to throw them off.

Donna knew better than to buy it this time around though.

How she hadn't seen him for the creep he was, she'd never know.

"You saw the plans and the controls" Donna reminded the traitor, before turning to the Time Lord, "Doctor?"

The Doctor looked at her sharply.

"How do we get down there without the key?" she 'asked'.

"Who needs keys?" he asked cheekily.

He started using the sonic on the controls.

"Whoever's behind all this?" Donna shrugged, reminding him of his talk about keys.

The Doctor shrugged, forced to admit she had a point.

"Right then, thanks you two, I can handle this, see you later" the Doctor said as he finished his work on the controls.

"Ha! Nice try Space Man. You're the one with the answers to this and the one who keeps saving my life, you're not going anywhere without me" Donna said sternly.

She promptly stepped into the lift without giving the Doctor a chance to complain.

Lance lingered outside the lift anxiously.

"Lance!" Donna said pointedly.

"Maybe I should go to the police" he said weakly, obviously trying to get away.

Donna wasn't having that though.

She wasn't going to give him chance to run off and warn the Empress about them.

Hell no.

She was determined to keep a close eye on the traitor.

And stop him the first chance she got.

"Shut up and get in here now" she commanded in a voice not to be argued with.

Lance meekly stepped into the lift too.

"To honour and obey?" the Doctor asked mockingly.

"Tell me about it, mate" Lance huffed.

"OI! Button it the pair of you!" Donna snapped at them both.

As the doors closed and the lift began its descent, Donna gulped nervously to herself.

She knew what was down there, and she didn't like it one bit.

Because it was time.

It was time to once again face the Empress of the Racnoss.

* * *

 **And there's the half-way part : )**

 **Some significant changes from the original episode. I like to think that the Doctor was a lot more vocal about losing Rose in canon in this episode than he was in the whole of season 3, and personally I think that's because The Runaway Bride is set directly after Doomsday, so his emotions about Rose are still simmering on the surface.** **So I was really trying to build on that and get him to open up a little more here.**

 **Don't think Donna's job to crack him is going to be easy though. He's a tough nut that's shut tighter than a clam : )**

 **Also, I can't wait for Lance to get what's coming to him ; ) Donna's doing a good job of keeping herself under control right now, but soon she'll see Lance get his just desserts : )**

 **Anyway, thank you for reading this chapter, and please leave a review on the way out : ) Don't forget, any suggestions or constructive criticisms are always appreciated : )**

 **Until the next time, keep on reading : )**


	4. The Runaway Bride - Part 3

**Hello everyone : ) Here's the next chapter : ) Today I honestly have nothing to say, other than a massive thank you to those of you that reviewed the last chapter. The support really does help so please keep it up : )**

 **Other than that, please remember that Doctor Who is not mine.**

 **I hope you enjoy this chapter : )**

* * *

 **The Runaway Bride – Part 3**

* * *

As the elevator descended further and further into the pit, Donna couldn't help but feel uneasy as a growing sense of dread chewed away at her stomach.

Whilst she may have seen many things that she had never imagined she ever would, the Racnoss had really been where it had all began.

So to see the giant spider again... well, it was nerve-racking to say the least.

But she could do this.

Really, she could.

She prayed she could anyway.

She felt a low hum of reassurance flood her mind from the Tardis.

Donna forced herself to be brave as the lift doors pinged open.

She COULD do this.

It would all be alright.

It had been the last time and it would be this time too.

She'd make sure of it.

Donna, the Doctor and Lance all stepped out into the long, dark, dank corridor which was lit up with a dull eerie green light.

Donna could vaguely remember the way to the chamber with the tunnel to the centre of the Earth and the Racnoss, but she couldn't exactly go walking right there could she?

The Doctor MIGHT just notice if she seemed to know where to go right off the bat.

"So where are we then?" Donna turned to the Doctor, "Any idea what goes on down here?"

"Let's find out" was the Time Lord's reply.

Without waiting for an answer, he promptly began walking off down the corridor.

"I doubt Mr. Clements knows about this place. What do you think is above us?" Donna asked for appearances' sake.

"No idea" the Doctor said cheerfully.

Donna's eyes brightened when she spotted the scooters that they had ridden last time.

"Look over there" she patted the Doctor's arm to get his attention, "We have transport!"

The Doctor's eyes fell on the scooters, and a huge grin lit up his face.

"Brilliant!" he cheered, "Come on then Donna Noble! Allons-y!"

The Doctor then dashed over to one of the scooters and hopped on board.

Matching his enthusiasm, Donna got on one too.

Lance looked at them both as if they were insane, before he reluctantly got on one too.

They only managed to get a few yards on the scooters before Donna burst out laughing, the Doctor quickly following her example.

Lance didn't though.

Grumpy sod.

Honestly, Donna had no idea how she could ever have fallen for him.

Not willing to think about that however, Donna decided to just mark it up as a mistake and move on, and that was exactly what she intended to do.

They eventually came to a door which had the words 'Torchwood - authorised personnel only' printed on it, and Donna snorted.

As if the Doctor, or anybody, would listen to them.

So naturally they abandoned their scooters and the Doctor turned the steel metal wheel which opened the door to reveal a ladder.

The Doctor peered upwards and Donna followed his gaze.

She could just about see the tiniest speck of light high over their heads.

"Wait here. Just need to get my bearings. Don't do anything" he told them both sternly.

He then began climbing the ladder.

"Well don't take all day about it. If there is someone behind all this they could be close by" Donna reminded him.

The Doctor nodded in agreement before resuming his climb.

"Donna, have you thought about this?" Lance grabbed her arm, turning her around so they were facing each other, "Properly? I mean, this is serious! What the hell are we gonna do?!"

Donna had to fight hard against the urge to spit in his face.

"Oh shut up, I don't have time to be dealing with cowards right now" she shot at him venomously.

Lance's jaw dropped open in shock, but Donna pointedly ignored him.

Suddenly Lance's eyes narrowed as he worked it, or at least some of it, out.

Donna didn't miss the cold, calculating glint in his eyes.

And immediately she knew.

She knew that he knew that she knew.

She tried to step away from him, but unfortunately, Lance was quicker. Without an ounce of hesitation, he grabbed her by the throat and attempted to drag her off forcefully.

Donna gasped for air and struggled but Lance was behind her, meaning that she couldn't aim her fists with any form of precision.

Lance squeezed tighter against her neck, and Donna rasped and choked for air.

Knowing she had to fight back, Donna reached backward with her thumb and felt her way up his face, until she found his eye socket.

She then proceeded to push her thumb nail into it.

Lance let out a shriek of agony.

Seizing her opportunity, Donna was able to rip herself away from him, whilst Lance clutched at his eye, a tiny trinkle of blood streaming out from under his hand.

Donna didn't even hesitate.

She promptly sprinted off down the corridor as fast as she could.

"You bitch!" Lance yelled in outrage.

Donna heard the sound of heavy footsteps trailing her, so she didn't need to look back to know the bastard was pursuing her.

Thinking quickly, Donna darted into the same laboratory that they had ended up in during the original timeline. The gleaming white surfaces and the bubbling test tubes were exactly the same.

Donna looked around frantically.

If she could just find something she could use to keep him at bay with until the Doctor arrived...

A curse slipped her lips however.

Other than the test tubes, which she knew the Doctor needed to see intact to know about how Torchwood had been manufacturing Huon Particles, she couldn't see anything she could use to attack Lance with.

The sound of footsteps approached the door.

Gritting her teeth, Donna threw herself underneath one of the desks, just seconds before Lance burst into the laboratory.

Donna waited with baited breath, but she was ready to fight if need-be.

"I know you're here!" Lance's voice snarled viciously, "I don't know how you found out, but I know that you know".

Donna closed her eyes, willing to whatever god there was looking down on her not to let him find her.

Despite loathing the man for what he'd done to her, Donna had never quite imagined Lance as the type to turn violent against a woman.

She supposed that old saying was true.

You never can truly know another person or their secrets.

But she was Donna Noble.

The unluckiest one of them all.

And within moments, she heard that dreaded word.

"Gotcha!" Lance cried victoriously.

Snapping her eyes open, Donna saw him crouching near to her hiding place, smirking down at her coldly.

Donna didn't even think.

She simply reacted.

With a powerful crunch, her fist connected with his jaw.

Lance let out a pained 'oomph' and stumbled backwards, before he was sent sprawling to the floor as Donna pushed past him.

Donna hurried around the desk, putting it between herself and Lance.

A minor form of protection, but right now she'd take whatever protection she could.

Picking himself up off the floor, Lance turned to her, eerily calm with an amused glint in his eyes.

Eyes so cold Donna could hardly believe she'd deluded herself into ever thinking she saw love shining from within them.

"Keep away from me" Donna hissed at him.

"Sorry Darlin', no can do" Lance taunted her in a sing-song voice.

Donna's fragile control over herself finally snapped.

Seizing an empty glass beaker off the desk, Donna hurled it at him with all her strength.

"AARRRGGHHH!" Lance screamed as it hit him square in the face, shattering on impact.

Donna watched in horrified satisfication as several shards of glass pierced his flesh and imbedded themselves in his face.

Blood streamed in crimson rivers down his face.

Lance blindly swiped at his own face, turning to rip the glass shards out.

All that served to do was make his injuries even worse.

Howling in pain, he began blundering towards Donna, swinging his arms wildly as if to attack her.

Donna wasn't having any of that though.

He had already inflicted more than enough pain on her heart.

She wasn't about to let him inflict it on her body too.

Gripping the edge of the desk between them so tightly her knuckles turned a ghastly shade of white, Donna pushed it with all her strength.

"Oomph!" Lance groaned as the desk caught him in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him and causing him to stagger backwards.

And unfortunately for Lance, as he took that step backwards, his foot made contact with a small puddle of the man's own blood.

Unable to catch himself in time, Lance's feet flew out from under him, and he fell.

With a sickening thud, the back of Lance's head collided with the floor.

His eyes slid shut and his body stilled.

Lance was out cold.

For one awful moment, Donna feared that she had killed him.

Then she clocked the fact that Lance's chest was still rising and falling, meaning he was still breathing.

A small sigh of relief slipped her lips.

Even though she had wanted Lance punished for his crimes against her, Donna could honestly say that she never wanted the man dead.

Still, if it was the other way around, he probably wouldn't care less.

So in Donna's book, that made her actions justifiable.

At that moment, the door to the laboratory crashed open behind her, causing Donna to whip around in alarm.

She immediately relaxed upon see the Doctor however.

The Time Lord looked at the dishevelled bride, the unconscious groom, and the mess that had once been a pristine laboratory.

His startled eyes fell upon Donna.

"What happened?!" he demanded in horrified bewilderment.

Donna knew he wouldn't be too happy about the violence she had used, but surely he'd understand that she hadn't had any choice.

Lance _had_ tried to strangle her after all.

"It was him, he's part of it! He tried to take me to someone else, the one behind all this!" Donna cried, feigning distress.

She knew that she had been the one to spark all that, but right now she didn't care.

They had bigger fish to fry.

"So you knocked him unconscious?!" the Doctor asked incredulously.

"He tried to strangle me!" Donna defended herself.

The Doctor's shock and anger deflated upon hearing those words.

"Are you alright?" he asked in concern.

Upon seeing her nod, the Doctor knelt down next to Lance's prone form, and checked the man's neck for a pulse.

"Yeah, I'm a little shaken but I'm alright" Donna nodded.

"Good, good. Seems like you were right about him, it was a bit too convenient" the Doctor told her.

"Yeah well, just leave him there, he'll be fine" Donna said uncaringly, before gesturing around at the laboratory's instruments, "I'm more interested in what all this stuff does right now".

The Doctor raised a confused eyebrow.

There was something really weird about Donna's reaction to what had just happened.

Shouldn't she be... well, _upset_ , about the fact that the man she had been about to marry had just tried to kill her?

Most people would be hurt, freaking out, _angry_ that someone that they trusted had in fact been lying to them from the word go, but this Donna woman didn't seem to mind too much.

Shouldn't she be scared witless and crying over having to hurt him to save herself?

And then there were those moments where it was like she was shifting between personalities.

Donna Noble just… didn't make _any_ sense!

In the end the Time Lord was forced to shrug his shoulders however.

Humans.

He never could work them out.

The Doctor looked around at some of the machines, especially the huge tube of bubbling crystal clear liquid, before his mouth dropped open.

"Oh that is beautiful! Stunning!" he beamed in delight, "Particle extrusion!"

"What's it for?" Donna 'asked'.

Inwardly however, she was feeling very nervous.

Donna hadn't missed the way the Doctor had looked at her after all.

She could tell that he was already suspicious.

She knew that she'd have to get better at covering stuff up if she wanted to keep all this a secret from him.

"Brilliant. They've been manufacturing Huon Particles. Because my people got rid of Huon energy, they unravelled the atomic structure" the Doctor explained to her.

"And who are they? You said you're not a Martian, but if you're an alien than what are you?" Donna pretended to ask.

The Doctor sighed, but answered regardless.

"I'm a Time Lord. But never mind that. This lot have been rebuilding them. They've been using the river! Extruding them through a flat hydrogen base so they've got the end result - Huon Particles in liquid form" he beamed, picking up a small test tube full of the Huon Particles.

"And that's what's inside me? Well how did it get there?" she knew she had to ask for appearances' sake.

The Doctor sadly turned his gaze onto Lance's prone figure.

"He made you coffee" he told her gently.

'He made me… oh… he was poisoning me all along?' she 'asked' weakly.

The Doctor grimly nodded once.

Donna let out a miserable - and extremely _fake_ \- sigh of sadness.

"I knew it was too good to be true" she said softly.

"I'm sorry" the Doctor offered.

"Why do you think he did it?" Donna asked for appearances' sake.

"I dunno" the Doctor shrugged, "It could be any number of reasons".

"I don't suppose it really matters now anyway. What's important is those Huon Particles" she said, trying to get him back on track.

"The Articles are inert, they need something living to catalyse inside and that's you. Saturate the body and then… HA! The wedding! Yes, you were getting married, that's it! Oh Donna you were right all along! Best day of your life, walking down the aisle, oh, your body's a battleground! There's a chemical war inside! Adrenaline, acetylcholine, WHAM go the endorphins, oh you're cooking! Yeah, you're like a walking oven! A pressure cooker, a microwave, all churning away, the particles reach boiling point, SHAZAM!" he cheered delightedly.

His voice was so loud however that it was starting to hurt Donna's ears, so she was forced to quickly shush him again.

"Shut up!" she yelled.

The Doctor fell silent under her gaze.

"Are you _enjoying_ this?" she asked indignantly.

The Doctor quickly shook his head.

"Good. You better not be. Now tell me, I've had these particles in me for the past six months and I'm alright. How much longer can I last?" she asked.

The Doctor's face darkened.

"A few weeks, tops" he said grimly.

Donna blanched.

If she didn't get them removed soon, she'd be dead before she could even find the Doctor again!

 _"I won't let it come to that"_ the Tardis assured her in her mind.

And it seemed as though the Doctor, completely unaware of course, mirrored the ship's sentiments.

"I'll sort it out, Donna. Whatever's been done to you, I'll reverse it. I'm not about to lose someone else. I promise you" he told her with the upmost sincerity.

"I know. That Rose was lucky, to find someone like you" she told him earnestly.

The Doctor looked stunned, before he smiled sadly at her.

"I'm not losing anyone else" he repeated.

And then Donna felt panic shoot through her heart like a metal spike had pierced her chest.

The reason for that emotion was quite simple.

Donna had just heard a voice she had not heard in a very long time.

A voice that still haunted her nightmares to this day.

"Oh, she is long since lost" the Empress of the Racnoss hissed over the intercom.

The back wall of the lab slid upwards and revealed the secret chamber with the enormous round hole in the floor. Donna remembered nearly falling into it all too well.

Hopeful _that_ could be avoided this time around.

"I have waited so long, hibernating at the edge of the universe until the secret heart was uncovered and called out to waken!" the dreaded voice told them.

Donna noted that the walls of the chamber were lined with the armed robots wearing black hoods, but she pointedly ignored them as she and the Doctor examined the hole.

"Someone's been digging… oh, very Torchwood. Drilled by laser. How far down does it go?" the Doctor asked curiously.

"Down and down" the Racnoss rasped, "All the way to the centre of the Earth!"

"Really? Seriously?" the Doctor almost sounded impressed, "What for?"

"The core" Donna suggested.

At least that suggestion was slightly better than Dinosaurs.

"What?" he looked at her in confusion.

"The core of the planet. All that molten lava and stuff. A power supply! Trying to help" she shrugged.

"You... actually, that could be right…" the Doctor turned away thoughtfully.

"Such a clever couple" the Racnoss sneered.

"Only a madman talks to thin air and trust me, you don't want to make me mad. Where are you?" the Doctor demanded to know.

"High in the sky, floating so high on Christmas Night" was the vague reply he received.

"I didn't come all this way to talk on the intercom!" the Doctor barked in frustration, "Come on; let's have a look at you!"

"Who are you with such command?" the Racnoss hissed angrily.

"I'm the Doctor" the Doctor said with his usual confidence.

"Then prepare your best medicines, doctor-man, for you will be sick at heart" the voice sneered.

Almost immediately after those words were spoken, a shimmer of bright blue light filled the chamber, and when it died down Donna saw the creature that still lived in her nightmares.

Red, feminine and as lethal as ever, was the Empress of the Racnoss, the humanoid spider that had tried so hard to kill Donna so very long ago.

Only now, it wasn't long ago.

It was here and it was now.

And Donna was determined to defeat the Empress once again, no matter the cost.

The Doctor gasped at the sight of the creature, completely stunned.

"The Racnoss... but that's _impossible_ , you're one of the Racnoss!" he exclaimed, disbelief colouring his tone.

"Empress of the Racnoss" the crimson spider corrected boastfully.

"If you're the Empress, where's the rest of the Racnoss? Or… are you the only one?" the Doctor asked.

Donna could tell that he was beginning to work it out.

"Such a sharp mind" the alien insect smirked at him.

"That's it, the last of your kind" the Doctor eyed her, before turning to Donna, "The Racnoss come from the Dark Times, billions of years ago, _billions_. They were carnivores, _omnivores_ , they devoured whole planets".

"Racnoss are born starving" the Racnoss stated coldly, "Is that our fault?" she challenged him threateningly.

"Err… Doctor, _look_ " Donna said, sounding disturbed, pointing upwards.

There, in the web that covered the ceiling, were a pair of feet dangling out.

The Doctor noticed the black and white shoes and grimaced.

"Ah. The mysterious H.C. Clements I presume" the Doctor said mournfully.

"Mm, my Christmas dinner" the Empress cackled.

"You shouldn't even exist! Way back in history, the Fledgling Empires went to war against the Racnoss. They were _wiped out_ " the Doctor exclaimed.

Donna remembered that right about now in the original timeline, she had spotted Lance sneaking up behind their enemy with an axe, and she had attempted to distract the Empress to buy him enough time.

This time however, there was no Lance and there was no axe.

So Donna went with her gut, which was telling her to keep the Empress talking until the glitch in the timeline resolved itself and things got back on track.

Thankfully this moment wasn't an important tipping point.

At least, she hoped it wasn't.

"So go on then. Tell us, because we're _dying_ to know. Those Huon energy particles. What are they for? Why bother getting a man to poison me with them?"she 'asked'.

Unfortunately however, the Empress didn't seem interested in answering any questions when she responded.

"You know, I watched your fight with funny little Lance. It was most entertaining" the spider cackled wickedly.

"Well I'm glad I could provided you with some in-flight entertainment" Donna retorted sarcastically, "Now answer my question!"

"You're quite funny for such a silly little inspect" the Empress cackled.

"Insect?! I'd take a long hard look in the mirror if I were you sweetheart' Donna suggested angrily.

"Oh and you're feisty too!" the alien said, almost sounding impressed.

"Yes I am, so you tell us now what we want to know!" Donna demanded fiercely again.

"Patience" the Racnoss smirked tauntingly at them both, "All shall be revealed at the time of the awakening!"

"Awakening of what?" the Doctor piped up.

The Racnoss bared her teeth at him, before adopting a tone of smooth as silk.

"Unfortunately for you, little doctor-man, I only need the bride. _You_ are disposable" she sneered at him.

"Well, I know what you mean; I am kind of a homeless wonder. But the point is, what's down there? The Racnoss are extinct. What's gonna help you four thousand miles down? That's just the molten core of the Earth, isn't it?" the Doctor wanted to know.

"Do you really want to know?" the alien spider asked, her tone mockingly sweet.

"I really do" the Doctor winked cheekily.

Donna worked hard not to roll her eyes at him.

That was just such a typical response from the Time Lord.

Laughing at the dark until he convinced himself he wasn't afraid anymore.

Hiding behind the face of a clown... well, that was the Doctor all over.

"Well, tough! All I need is the bride!" the spider snapped at him.

Before another word could be spoken, the humanoid spider turned to the robots that lined the chamber's walls.

"Kill this chattering little doctor-man!" she snarled.

The Robo-Forms all raised their guns.

"Don't you dare hurt him!" Donna yelled, her protective instincts over her best friend flaring up inside her.

"No, no, it's all right" the Doctor told her calmly.

"No, I won't let them!" Donna cried.

They had been through WAY too much together for her to let him get hurt.

And beyond that, if he _did_ get shot right now - which was a possibility considering that time was literally being rewritten right now - then the entire world would fall into ruins.

Donna would be damned if she'd let that happen.

She'd lived in a world like that once, and she was determined to stop it from ever happening again.

"At arms!" the Racnoss ordered, ignoring Donna's protests.

The Robo-Forms all readied their weapons.

"Take aim!" she continued.

Every single gun was soon trained on the Doctor.

"Well, I just want to point out the obvious…" the Doctor began before the Racnoss cut over him.

"They won't hit the bride" she gave a dark chuckle, "They're such very good shots".

"Just… just… just… hold on, just a tick, just a tiny… just a little… tick. If you think about it, the particles activated in Donna and drew her inside my spaceship. So, reverse it… the spaceship comes to her" the Doctor said, playing with the test tube still in his hands.

Donna skin tingled and sparkled as she lit up like a Christmas tree.

"Bloody hell!" Donna cried, forcing herself to react like she was shocked, but really it was just to make the Doctor less suspicious.

He wasn't an idiot after all.

Donna knew that he just had to know there was something not quite right about her by now.

"Fire!" Donna heard the Racnoss give the order.

Thankfully, it was already too late.

In a cyclone of blue atoms, the Tardis materialised around the two of them, and the bullets bounced harmless away from the wooden exterior of the police box.

Donna turned to the Doctor with a grin.

"That… was bloody brilliant" she grinned happily at him, delighted that that had worked a second time.

"I know! HA!" he cheered happily.

He quickly made his way over to the console and began piloting them away.

The entire room shook as they fled the chamber.

Donna meanwhile was feeling rather relieved.

Facing the Empress again hadn't been quite as bad as she might have imagined.

At least they'd escaped again at any rate.

* * *

The Doctor was rushing around the console and Donna was clinging on for dear life.

"Oh, you know what I said before about time machines? Well, I lied. And now we're gonna use it" the Doctor told her, rather casually.

Donna forced herself to give him a gobsmacked expression.

"It's a time machine?" Donna 'asked' in awe.

"Oh yes!" the Doctor beamed.

"No way! That is just wizard!" Donna cheered too.

The Doctor laughed happily at the word 'wizard'.

"So where and when are we going too?" Donna knew she had to ask.

"We need to find out what the Empress of the Racnoss is digging up. If something's buried at the planet's core, it must've been there since the beginning. That's just brilliant. Molto bene! I've always wanted to see this. Donna - we're going further back than I've ever been before" he beamed at her.

"What… you don't mean... the beginning of the world?!" Donna made her eyes go wide.

All these forced expressions however were starting to get exhausting.

"Yes! Isn't that brilliant?" the Doctor asked her excitedly.

"Hell yeah!" Donna beamed.

Now that the sting of Lance's betrayal wasn't eating away at her, Donna could appreciate this moment for how beautiful it truly was.

Suddenly the engines ground to a halt and the shaking lessened.

"We've arrived... want to see?" the Doctor asked enticingly.

"Definitely!" Donna cheered happily.

Without waiting for any further invitation, she promptly dashed over to the doors and threw them open.

Even a second time, it was a breath-taking sight.

More than that, it was _spectacular._

The sun was just starting to shine through rainbow coloured dust clouds and floating chunks of rocks.

It was… _magical_.

"That is… that is… oh my god" Donna was genuinely lost for words.

The last time she had been a bit unenthusiastic, but this time she could appreciate the beauty of it more.

And it was wonderful!

"Donna Noble, welcome to the creation of the Earth. We've gone back 4.6 billion years. There's no solar system, not yet. Only dust and rocks and gas" the Doctor began to explain before pointing at the sun in the distance, "That's the Sun over there, brand new. Just beginning to burn".

"And let me guess, all these rocks are the earth yeah? Or at least parts of all the planets that will become our solar system?" Donna asked and the Doctor nodded.

"All around us... in the dust" the Doctor said poetically.

"Puts everything else into perspective. It's funny, isn't it? I once thought that my wedding was the biggest thing ever to happen… but compared to this… it's so tiny" Donna smiled thoughtfully.

"No, but that's what you do. The human race. Making sense out of chaos. Marking it out with weddings and Christmas and calendars. This whole process is beautiful, but only if it's being observed" the Doctor told her.

He couldn't help but be impressed by how well see was taking all this.

Oh there was definitely something funny about all this.

Something funny about _her_.

He just couldn't quite place his finger on it yet.

"So, how does the Racnoss tie into all this?" Donna 'asked'.

"I'm not totally sure yet" the Doctor admitted.

"Do you think the Empress buried something?" Donna asked and the Doctor shrugged.

"I can't see how. I mean, she'd have to do it right now because soon gravity will take hold. Say, one big rock, heavier than the others, starts to pull other rocks towards it. All the dust and gas and elements get pulled in, everything, piling in until you get the…" the Doctor explained before Donna cut over him.

"The Earth" she smiled.

The Doctor nodded.

"So what the real question is... what was that first rock?" he asked curiously.

Donna had no opportunity to reply, for at that moment, a gigantic star-shaped chuck of rock emerged through one of the beautiful blue and purple clouds.

"Oh, look at that" the Doctor pointed at it excitedly.

"Is it the Racnoss?" Donna whispered.

The Doctor nodded silently, before he rushed off back to the console to check some readings.

"Hold on… the Racnoss are hiding from the war! What's it doing?" the Doctor called over to Donna, who had remained back by the door.

She watched as all the rocks and the dust and the clouds of gas all began to get drawn in by the Racnoss Star as if by magnetism.

"Exactly what you said" she replied.

The Doctor dashed back over to her to get a look for himself.

"Oh, they didn't just bury something at the centre of the Earth... they _became_ the centre of the Earth. The first rock" the Doctor realised.

Suddenly the Tardis gave a great lurk forwards, nearly tossing them both out.

"What the hell was that?" Donna demanded as they settled themselves.

In reality she knew of course what it was, but she couldn't let him know that.

"Trouble" the Doctor said grimly.

The Time Lord slammed the doors shut, and a moment later the two of them rushed back over to the console.

The Doctor went straight to the monitor before he let out a groan and rubbed at the back of his head.

"What is it? What's happened?" Donna 'asked' as she rushed to his side.

"Remember that little trick I pulled, particles pulling particles? Well it works in reverse - they're pulling us back!" the Doctor said grimly.

He quickly started desperately hard to try and pilot them away, but there was nothing he could do.

The Tardis was beyond his control now.

"Cheeky cow… can't you do something?" Donna 'asked'.

"Maybe, just let me think… Oh! Wait a minute!" he cried, diving under the console and pulling out a large panel with flashing lights and buttons and wires all over it.

"The extrapolator! Can't stop us, but it should give us a good bump!" the Doctor said gleefully.

With urgency, he began wiring it into the console.

Suddenly the Tardis touched down, just as the Doctor finished plugging the extrapolator in.

"Now!" he cried, smacking the console with his mallet.

The Tardis groaned and lurked again, before everything finally settled down.

 **"Are you alright?"** Donna asked the Tardis in her mind with concern.

 _"Not exactly but I'll live_ " the Tardis grumbled back, _"Although if he smacks me with that mallet again he might not"._

Donna bit down on her lip to contain a laugh.

The Doctor dashed over to the doors and peered out.

Snapping back to the present, Donna followed him.

They were back in the corridors.

Donna couldn't help the wince of annoyance that escaped her.

After all, she knew what was coming next.

And she also knew that despite how much she wanted to, this was a moment that she couldn't afford to change.

"We're about two hundred yards to the right. Come on!" the Doctor shouted, running off.

Donna hurried after him.

 _"Good luck"_ the Tardis whispered in her mind.

 **"Thanks"** Donna thought back grimly, **"I've got a feeling I'll need it".**

She quickly caught up with the Doctor when he suddenly halted, right outside the door leading to the ladder that led up to the Thames Flood Barrier.

Donna mentally braced herself.

She perked her ears, and could just about hear the swish of a cloak coming closer.

Or maybe she was just imagining it because she knew it was soon to happen.

Either way, her nerves were on edge.

Getting kidnapped was hardly a relaxing and enjoyable experience after all.

"Right, what do we do now?" Donna asked, forcing herself to sound calm.

Despite knowing how things had placed out the last time, Donna couldn't help but worry about things changing for the unknown this time around.

And with the Robo-Forms coming for her, Donna was not ashamed to admit she was a little bit frightened right now.

The Doctor had his stethoscope in hand and had it pressed up against the door, obviously trying to hear something on the other side.

Donna had no idea what that could be though.

It wasn't something that she could remember from the original timeline at any rate.

"I don't know! I make it up as I go along! But trust me, I've got a history" the Doctor smirked smugly.

"And chances are it's a terrible one" Donna smirked, knowing that from past - and future - experience, "Hang on though, those particles… what are they actually for?" she asked, closing her eyes as she willed herself to remain calm.

It was due any second now though.

Her kidnapping.

"There's a Racnoss web at the centre of the Earth, but my people unravelled their power source. The Huon particles ceased to exist which means that the Racnoss are stuck" the Doctor said, his back to her, focusing entirely on getting through the door.

Donna whimpered as at that very moment, a hand shot out from behind her and covered her mouth.

Donna didn't even bother to struggle this time around.

She didn't even call out for help.

Donna knew that this had to be done, and if she had to play damsel in distress now to ensure a happier future later, than so be it.

So with that thought in mind, Donna allowed herself to be steered away.

* * *

 **Yay!**

 **Donna finally got her own back on Lance : ) Maybe it was a bit too violent, and I can't really see the Doctor and Donna just walking off and leaving him there, but what else could they do? Ring for an ambulance? Oh well, sometimes the characters just have to do what the story demands of them : )**

 **Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this instalment, and please let me know what you thought of this chapter in a review : )**

 **Until the next time, keep on reading : )**


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